
Class ^ _ 

Book ^L 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



EDWARD JUDSON 
INTERPRETER OF GOD 



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EDWARD JUDSON 

IN PRIME OF LIFE 



EDWARD JUDSON 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 



By CHARLES HATCH SEARS, M. A., B. D. 

Author of " The Redemption of the City " 



& 



THE GRIFFITH AND ROWLAND PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 

LOS ANGELES TORONTO, CAN. 



•\> 






Copyright 1917 by 
GUY C. LAMSON, Secretary 



Published April, 1917 



/ 



MAY -7 1917 
~ 167161 



PREFACE 

Personality, the richest gift of divine beneficence, can- 
not be described, it can only be felt. Could one who had 
felt the power of the personality of Edward Judson, 
and had seen the beauty of his character, do other than 
hesitate to tell the story of his life? 

Attracted to New York by him, as a student working 
for six years under his direction at the Memorial Bap- 
tist Church, and for ten years associated with him in 
denominational undertakings, and having had the privi- 
lege of a close personal relationship, I have had somewhat 
exceptional opportunity to know his ideals, and to see 
something of his bitter struggles " to freeze his thoughts 
into metal." A world which is never too kindly to the 
ideal was none too responsive to the touch of this idealist ; 
and Edward Judson was an artist, and would give his 
life rather than cheapen his art. 

One has said of him that, " chivalrous and saintly, too 
fine-grained for the slums, he hacked away at the giant 
city even with his tempered razor, confident that in time 
God would bring down the tree." This beautiful tribute 
to his art and to his faith falls short of appreciating the 
very practical character of his life and work. He must 
not be presented as an idealist only, but as a student of 
affairs, and as the founder of an institution whose in- 
fluence has been far-reaching. 



VI PREFACE 

Doctor Judson's daughters have requested that his life 
be treated in its public relationships, rather than in its 
more intimate personal relations. I am indebted to them 
for the use of Doctor Judson's files, from which the 
material of the book has been largely drawn ; I am grate- 
ful also for the assistance of his faithful and long-time 
secretary, Dr. Frederick A. Vanderburgh, and for the 
kindly criticism of Dean Shailer Mathews, Dr. William 
M. Lawrence, and the Rev. C. Wallace Petty. 

New York City, October, x 9 x6. CHARLES HATCH SEARS. 



INTRODUCTION 



The life of a great man is a public heritage. However 
much such a life may have been built into institutions, its 
individual qualities are too dynamic to be lost. Souls 
always possess value not embodied in their corporate 
influence. Jesus is more than the church, Bernard of 
Clairvaux speaks through other channels than his frater- 
nity. 

All this is true of Edward Judson. Those of us who 
knew him honored him for his share in adjusting the de- 
nomination and a church to new conditions, but we drew 
faith from himself as a friend. Who can ever forget 
his smile and the exquisite camaraderie which made 
friendship more than a recognition of his leadership. The 
buoyancy of his spirit lifted us even when he himself 
must have been struggling with discouragement. Often, 
I fear, we failed to let him see how much he meant to 
us, and assumed too easily that he knew the warmth 
of our affection. But we have the heritage of his choice 
companionship. 

The denomination to which Doctor Judson belonged is 
under great obligation to him for many services, but none 
of these to my mind quite equals his share in the trans- 
formation of what might have become mere sectarian- 
ism into an enthusiasm for the kingdom of God. He 
brought to the church life an extraordinary combination 
of spiritual and social vision. He dared believe that 
evangelicalism could be beautiful and humanitarian with- 
out losing its trust in God. A gentleman unafraid in any 
situation, he gave to everything he undertook a touch 

vii 



VIU INTRODUCTION 

of chivalry that was none the less human because it was 
born of an exquisite sense of beauty and divine love. 

Mr. Sears' volume will help those of us who knew 
him to revive this personal influence, and it will serve to 
extend the range of those who may know him more inti- 
mately than could have been their fortune while he lived. 
With all its respect for the sanctities of private life, it 
brings its reader face to face with one who was a prince 
among friends as well as a leader in good works. 

Shailer Mathews. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Early Life i 

II. Scholar, Teacher, and Educator 23 

III. Pastor and Preacher 44 

IV. Author 70 

V. A Social Pioneer 84 

VI. The Social Prophet 110 

VII. Interpreter of God 124 



IX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Edward Judson in prime of life Frontispiece ^ 

Mrs. Emily C. Judson and Children 14 ^ 

Mrs. Judson' 's Home 20 

Edward Judson, pastor of North Orange Church . . 44 v 

Church Vacation School Group 82 v 

Ice-water Fountain at corner of church 94 ^ 

Daily Kindergarten, one of the first church kinder- 
gartens established in New York 98 

Open-air Italian Service at comer of church 104 ' 

Judson Memorial Church through Washington Arch 108 v 

Church Dispensary — Doctor Irwin at the right. One 

of the first church dispensaries in New York . . 116 ' 

Memorial Children's Home 122 

Edward Judson 132 

The Judson Memorial 146 



EDWARD JUDSON 

INTERPRETER OF GOD 



EARLY LIFE 

IN ancient days the Oriental numbered his sheep and 
counted his garments, for he thought that in them 
was his wealth. In modern days the Occidental regis- 
ters his houses and lands and lists his stocks and bonds, 
thinking that in them is his wealth. The modern eugenist 
says that in its child life is the nation's wealth. Ruskin, 
with deeper insight, declared " there is no wealth but 
life." Wealth consists not of houses and lands, not of 
stocks and bonds, not of gold and silver, nor indeed of 
undeveloped child life; but the greatest wealth is de- 
veloped personality. Wealth is personality — the ultimate 
product. 

As we see over the crimson-tinted Puget Sound the 
snow-capped Olympic Range standing against the golden 
gateway of the setting sun, or from Council Crest that 
trinity of mountain peaks — Ranier, Hood, and Baker — 
each piercing the clouds with its snow-capped peak, 
so some men stand out against the background of the 
mass of men. Such a man was Edward Judson, a 
developed personality — the flower of generations of Chris- 
tian culture. 

Edward Judson was the product of generations of 
sturdy stock. We may trace the family back seven 

I 



2 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

generations, to the time when William, the sire of the Jud- 
sons in America, came from Yorkshire, England, and with 
him his three sons, Joseph, Jeremiah, and Joshua, though 
Doctor Wayland, Adoniram Judson's biographer, seems 
to express some doubt as to the historical accuracy of 
this lineage. John, one of the eleven children of Joseph, 
lived at Concord and at Stratford. Jonathan, son of 
John Judson, the great-great-grandfather of Edward, 
was born in December, 1684. His son Elnathan, great- 
grandfather of Edward, was born on May 8, 1712. 
Adoniram, the father of Adoniram Judson the mission- 
ary, born in June, 1752, proved himself a man of striking 
virility. Yale conferred upon him the degree of bachelor 
of arts in 1775, and of master of arts in 1778. He died 
in November, 1826. 

Characteristics of Adoniram Judson 

Adoniram Judson, the father of Edward, was born 
in Maiden, Massachusetts, on August 9, 1788. His ex- 
traordinary mental ability was evident while he was 
yet a very young child. When his father returned from 
a journey, his son of three years surprised him by reading 
a whole chapter from the Bible. As a boy he was of an 
inquisitive, experimental nature. At Brown University, 
which he entered at sixteen years of age, he won the 
hearty approbation of the president, who wrote to his 
father, commending the fine work of the son. 

The Burmese Bible, translated by Adoniram Judson, is 
widely recognized as the great memorial of his life. This 
work particularly shows his notable linguistic and literary 
ability. The Burmese Bible occupies a place similar 
to that of the King James version in English literature. 
The Burmese dictionary, to which he gave the last years 
of his life, while not entirely completed by him, has 
proved to be an equally enduring monument. 



EARLY LIFE 3 

His pedagogical ability was shown in his early teaching 
experience, but more in his training the young American 
missionaries and the native converts who were to become 
the chief reliance of the church in evangelizing Burma. 

The prodigious amount of work which he accomplished 
in later life was largely due to his punctilious care of his 
health. One of his maxims was " Beware of that indo- 
lence which leads to neglect of bodily exercise." About 
the only form of exercise which he found practicable 
was walking. Mrs. Emily C. Judson, in one of her 
letters, says of her husband : 

The good man works like a galley-slave; and really it quite 
distresses me sometimes, but he seems to get fat on it, so I try 
not to worry. He walks, or rather runs, like a boy over the 
hills, a mile or two every morning. . . It is this walking which 
is keeping him out of the grave. 

To him care of his body meant not merely attention to 
exercise, but scrupulous cleanliness and careful diet. 

There was in his make-up a delicate strain of humor 
which tended to soften his rather too rigid nature and to 
lighten the black clouds which settled all too frequently 
about him. This quality removed the tension from his 
life. So we find in his references to his horrible prison 
experiences a certain sense of grim humor in quoting 
a remark of a brutal jailer: " My son, be sure you have 
never wrung a rag so dry but another twist will bring 
another drop." We find him enjoining the young mis- 
sionaries not to be " too ravenous to do good on board 
ship." 

In Edward Judson's life of his father he refers to 
him as having the fresh heart of a boy at the age of 
sixty. He loved to romp with his children, and was char- 
acterized by his wife as an adept at " baby talk." Emily 
C. Judson refers to him as unconquerably youthful. She 
said : " He seems to have caught the elixir that keeps the 



4 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

heart always young, to have drawn his very life-blood 
from that deep heart of existence which beats forever 
like a boy." (" Life of Emily C. Judson") 

He was both systematic and persistent, holding dog- 
gedly to a purpose to the very end; indeed, he said of 
himself that he had " a lust for finishing." If it is true, 
as Edward Judson was wont to say, that "It is poetry 
to begin and prose to continue," Adoniram Judson found 
poetry, or a touch of romance, in the finishing of a task. 

Adoniram Judson had what we may call a sense of 
destiny, which impelled him to give himself to the utter- 
most. He gave himself to the mission cause, not for a 
day, but for a life. While finding satisfaction in the 
study of literature, especially that of the Burmese people, 
he would not allow himself to give his time to literary 
pursuits that did not directly relate to his work. He as- 
sumed certain important responsibilities from the govern- 
ment, but only because they contributed to his funda- 
mental purpose, and then remitted to the missionary 
society his compensation, amounting to 5,200 rupees, or 
about $2,000. He also turned over to the missionary 
society the avails of the presents which had been given 
to him, amounting to 2,000 additional rupees. At another 
time he voluntarily surrendered one-fourth of his salary 
because he had found that he could live in greater sim- 
plicity without requiring the full amount. Even this sacri- 
fice did not restrain him from offering, under certain 
conditions, to make a further gift of one-tenth of his 
income. In 1829 he gave to the missionary society his 
personal fortune of 12,000 rupees, the avails of his 
own earnings as a teacher before he became a missionary, 
and the gifts of friends and relatives which he had allowed 
to accumulate at interest for a period of years. This 
voluntary surrender of all personal funds grew out of 
his religious faith. 



EARLY LIFE 5 

Perhaps it was his complete devotion that led him 
into certain ascetic practices, though this asceticism was 
doubtless prompted by his sorrow and loneliness. During 
those eight years of solitude after the death of Ann 
Hasseltine, the first Mrs. Judson, he showed very pro- 
nounced tendencies toward asceticism. In this he did 
violence to his nature, which was perhaps more than 
normally social. His intimate associates regarded his 
genial disposition as one of his most marked character- 
istics. 

His nature, naturally buoyant and hopeful, asserted 
itself even in the hour of death, and to the very end 
he was triumphant, except when racked by intense phys- 
ical pain. 

It is interesting to trace causes from known effects, as 
astronomers discovered the new planet Uranus from the 
influences which it exerted upon other heavenly bodies. 
We find the outstanding characteristics of the father 
reproduced in the son, though the father was denied any 
part in the training of his boy except during his early 
childhood. Account for it as we may, whether by hered- 
itary influences, by the impression indelibly stamped upon 
the mind and heart of the young boy, or by that lifelong 
devotion of the son to the memory of the father, certain 
it is that the noble characteristics of the father found 
their counterpart in the life of the son. 

Characteristics of Sarah B. Judson 

Edward Judson's maternal heritage was rich, though 
he was denied the mother care which Mrs. Judson had 
lavished on her older son, George Dana Boardman. She 
was the daughter of Ralph and Abiah Hall, born Novem- 
ber 4, 1803, tne oldest of thirteen children. Her ability 
to read at the age of four was a true indication of her 
unusual intellectual power. As a child she was serious, 



6 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

too serious perhaps. Denied the advantages of school 
training and forced to care for her brothers and sisters, 
she utilized her leisure hours for serious study. In her 
early teens she studied such books as Butler's " Analogy " 
and Paley's " Evidences," which were found in the cur- 
riculum of every college of that day. At the same period 
she wrote a friend: 

Besides, I have been for six weeks past employed with a 
gentleman, upon the evidences of the soul's immortality, inde- 
pendent of the Scriptures. 

The study of the life of Samuel J. Mills, who was 
associated with Adoniram Judson at the beginning of the 
American enterprise of foreign missions, was a deter- 
mining factor in her life. On the death of Coleman, 
which occurred in Burma just as Sarah Hall was emerg- 
ing into womanhood, she wrote a poem which attracted 
the attention of George Dana Boardman, who was look- 
ing forward to service as. a missionary in Burma. This 
poem was read by its author at a missionary meeting 
attended by Ann Judson during her only visit to America. 

Sarah Hall married Mr. Boardman on July 4, 1825, 
and sailed for India on the sixteenth of July. This was 
at the period of the Burmese war, which detained them 
for some months in India. We shall pass over the events 
of the life of Mrs. Boardman up to the death of her 
husband on February 11, 1831. On April 10, 1834, she 
was married to Adoniram Judson, and took up life in 
Moulmein. 

As a teacher, her constructive work had gained 
the recognition of the British authorities. Upon her 
arrival at Moulmein they sought her service in the 
government schools of that city. She felt compelled to 
decline the offer. But the cooperation of the govern- 
ment in the mission schools secured by Mrs. Judson has 



EARLY LIFE 7 

continued to this day. She had shown gifts for organiza- 
tion in the practical missionary work in which she ac- 
tively engaged after the death of Doctor Boardman. 
It was as a linguist that her most distinctive missionary 
work was done after her marriage to Adoniram Judson. 
Her discriminating knowledge of the Burmese language 
was a delight to her husband, who was disposed to be 
critical in matters of language study. She was not only 
proficient in Burmese, but made a special study of the 
Peguan tongue, that the Peguan people might have tracts 
in their own tongue. Her translations include the New 
Testament and many of Adoniram Judson's writings 
in Peguan ; the " Life of Christ," the " Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress " (Vol. I), and many hymns in the Burmese. In 
her struggle against ill health and disease she showed 
an unfaltering will. Despite the handicap of a weakened 
body, she accomplished the enormous amount of work 
which was involved in the care of her six children and 
in her linguistic and missionary activities. 

At the time of her death the editor of the " Mother's 
Journal " said : " She was of about middle stature, agree- 
able in her personal appearance, and witty in her manner." 
Her English friends described her as the " most finished 
and faultless specimen of an American woman that they 
had ever known." Adoniram Judson at the time of her 
death wrote to a friend : 

I exceedingly regret that there is no portrait of the second, 
as of the first Mrs. Judson. Her soft blue eyes, her mild aspect, 
her lovely face, and elegant form have never been delineated 
on canvas. They must soon pass away from the memory, even 
of her children. — " Life of Sarah B. Judson" page 247. 

It was the feeble cry of a puny boy that was raised in 
a missionary compound in Moulmein on December 27, 
1844 — the eighth little voice in that home, though two 
had already been hushed in the eternal silence. 



8 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

That "infant crying for the light-' was heard in a 
home whose joy was clouded by sickness and impending 
separation. The figure of grim death was there and but 
thinly veiled. On the twenty-sixth of April, four months 
later, the mother gave her last caress to the little infant, 
as, in a vain search for health, she set sail for America. 

At the Judson Centennial in Boston, in 1914, Dr. 
Adoniram Judson, brother of Edward Judson, gave the 
following reminiscence of the journey of the father, 
mother, and three older children through the Indian 
Ocean. The experience left an impression on his re- 
sponsive mind, which he recalled with joy, nearly three- 
score years later. 

A long way the other side of St. Helena, when crossing the 
Indian Ocean, one night, when the wind had died away and the 
stars were out and the ship stood still in a calm, the family 
gathered on deck, and mother sang to the group, which included 
some of the sailors and officers of the ship. 

The hymn was " The Star of Bethlehem.". . 

The calm sea, the sweet voice, and the sky filled with bright 
stars made a scene not easily forgotten. — "Judson Centennial 
Report," page 45. 

Such scenes brought invigoration. With the promise 
of restored health, Mrs. Judson decided to make the 
trip to America alone with her three children. It was 
then that she wrote the poem which has been recog- 
nized as one of the missionary classics, beginning, " We 
part on this green islet, love." 

It was a false hope. On the evening of August 31 
Mrs. Judson took final leave of her children. After 
the ship had come to anchor at St. Helena her life ebbed 
out. The little family was left motherless — the three on 
shipboard and the three in far-away Burma. 

Our special interest is with the child in Moulmein, 
cared for by missionaries, quite unconscious of his loss. 



EARLY LIFE 9 

Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. E. A. 
Stevens, to whom Edward was entrusted, gives this in- 
teresting reminiscence : 

When I was four years old, there was introduced into the 
home a little four-months-old boy, and placed in my mother's 
arms. I have a very distinct picture imprinted on my memory 
of Doctor Judson entering the door with the wee, puny little 
baby in his arms and handing him to my mother. Most faith- 
fully and lovingly did she fulfil her trust. The poor little man 
had had a hard struggle for life, because of the serious con- 
dition of his mother's health before and after his birth. My 
mother had a baby of her own only a few months older, strong 
and happy and plump. She was convinced that the only way 
to save the life of baby Edward was to give him the chance 
that little Emma had enjoyed. The result justified her expecta- 
tions. She had the joy of returning him to his father, two 
years later, in perfect health. 

On November 29, 1846, when Edward was nearly two 
years of age, his father arrived in Moulmein with an- 
other, whom they were taught to call mother — Emily 
Chubbuck Judson — " Fanny Forester," the brilliant writer. 
Only two of the three children he had left were there 
to greet them ; little Charles had died during his absence, 
but Edward was now strong and healthy, thanks to the 
self-sacrificing devotion of Mrs. Stevens. 

A peculiar charm attaches to Edward Judson's early 
childhood, because it was spent in Moulmein, that city 
of permanent missionary interest, and in the home of 
the great pioneer missionary. Dr. Adoniram Judson, 
Edward Judson's brother, only a few weeks before his 
death in September, 1916, contributed this picture of life 
in the missionary compound in Moulmein : 

Childhood Reminiscences of Adoniram B. 
Judson, M. D. 

One of the pleasures of old age is to recall and arrange in 
order the incidents of childhood. Mine would hardly be worth 



10 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

the recording except from their relations to two well-known 
names, that of my father, Adoniram Judson, the first American 
missionary, and the loved and honored name of my youngest 
brother, Edward Judson, the eminent pastor and a pioneer 
in the missionary stations found at home in crowded cities. 
Edward and all his brothers and sisters were born at Moulmein, 
Burma. Extreme climatic conditions have given a bad reputation 
to that part of the world, where the sun's heat is intense and 
where the seasons change only from very wet to very dry. I 
do not recall the atmospheric conditions. Children are so intent 
on their, to them, important pursuits that they have no time 
to recognize the discomforts and inconveniences which try so 
severely the temper and health of adults. The daily heat is so 
severe that native Burmans in their childhood go without cloth- 
ing, and in our more circumspect circles a single garment, often 
in the form of a " combination suit," was considered sufficient 
for children except on the rare occasions when we went away 
from home. Our simple raiment was specially suitable in the 
long wet season, when it was a pastime to occupy the rain- 
barrels and receive the torrents rushing down from the roofs. 
At other seasons an enclosure of dry sand provided for many 
happy hours spent in laboriously sifting the sand through a cane- 
bottom stool or chair in search of hidden buttons or small toys. 
Another diversion was to tie a string tightly around the lower 
ends of the " combination," and then fill it in from the top with 
sand till the little legs assumed a heroic size and locomotion 
was difficult, to say the least. 

Day and night we were in the compound, which was a reserva- 
tion about the size of a small city park, enclosed by a fence or 
bamboo hedge. Here were found the mission buildings and 
the families, each in its own home. I think none of the 
Burmans lived regularly in the mission compound. There were 
other compounds occupied in various ways. The governor's 
compound, the cantonments, and the resorts of resident merchants 
were, in our limited observation, little known and mysterious 
regions. In serious cases English physicians were sought, per- 
haps those connected with the military. Vaccination had not 
superseded inoculation. For one I vividly recall many a draught 
of decoction of Peruvian bark. Quinine had not been introduced. 

The city spread over a wide extent with interesting bazaars, 
temples, pagodas, and one-story, highly inflammable thatched 
houses crowding on the narrow streets. Like other settlements 



EARLY LIFE II 

in the East, parts of the town were always new where large 
districts were frequently burnt over. When a conflagration 
started, father would take his spear, not unlike a bayonet fixed 
on a long handle, and be absent till the trouble was over. His 
mind was doubtless on the preservation of the mission property 
and the safety of his own and other missionary families. 

Beyond the city, the country was more or less a jungle, still 
infested by destructive animals which sometimes strayed into 
the town. Two tigers, bent on exploration or prompted by 
appetite, prowled in as far as the jail, where they were met 
with opposition from a squad of soldiers. One of them escaped, 
and we heard that the other was dispatched in a scene of wild 
excitement. The next day he was mounted on a cart in a 
ferocious attitude and exhibited in the streets. The procession 
passed through our compound, entering by the gate near the 
river, and going out by the opposite gate, in the direction of 
the governor's compound, leaving the baptistry and the printing- 
house on the left, and our house, connected with the church by 
a covered path, on the right. 

Each home had a cook-house, where rice and curry and other 
food were prepared. Like all children when permitted, we often 
visited the kitchen, where it was a fine thing to secure the burnt 
layers of rice in the bottom of the pot. One day we saw the 
cook-house go up in its own flames, leaving only its walls of 
brick. The house was built of wood, with wide verandas and 
surrounded by a row of banana trees, almost against the eaves. 
Each child claimed a tree and its fruit. A boy with a sharp 
knife could construct the stem of a gigantic banana leaf in 
imitation of a noisy regulation gun firing rapid volleys. A 
few grains of Indian corn planted as an experiment in a small 
round bed in the open of the compound proved a disappointment 
to father when some irresponsible animal devoured the tender 
blades at night. Father ate cake only after dipping a piece 
in a tumbler of water. He did this when in America in 1845, 
and probably explained his departure from ordinary custom by 
recalling the days when cake came from home dried hard on 
the long voyage. 

Rooms were bounded by a low partition for ventilation and 
coolness. A punka, or swinging board, over the dinner-table 
served as a huge fan, moved by some one in control of a rope on 
the veranda. One day family prayer was made more serious 
than usual by a ceremony in which father changed my name 



12 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

from Fenelon to Adoniram, probably from the failure of friends 
at home to appreciate his transient surrender to the meditations 
of the mystics. A day-school for the mission children was 
maintained, and Sunday saw little ones of all sizes at church, 
where the very small slept on mats. One Sunday I imitated 
father's gestures, and was afterward duly and deservedly 
punished. 

I have a small photo, a gift of Rev. Sumner R. Vinton, which 
shows most vividly, as I remember them, the church with its 
detached belfry, under which was an enclosed space thickly 
crowded with a growth of rank foliage, and here was captured 
an enormous animal of the lizard kind, which excited general 
interest. We called it a " guano." In after years I learned 
it was doubtless an iguana, considered a fine table delicacy. 
In the shaded places at the sides of the church, overhung by an 
extension of the roof, native women on week-days carried on 
their weaving or winding of cotton threads. In imitation we 
set up a miniature loom in the shade of the covered pathway; 
the product was an inch or two of knotty ribbonlike goods of 
perhaps a finger's breadth. Father was interested in the inven- 
tive arts, and I recall his explaining that the construction of the 
handle of the teapot was partly wood to protect the hand from 
heat. 

In the same shady places we watched the lion-ants, ferocious 
little mites, of cannibal tastes, whose method was to lie hidden 
in their pits till some helpless insect came down, unable to 
escape up the steep sides of the rolling sand. It was possible 
to draw one from his lair with his mandibles fixed in live bait 
tied to a hair. Varieties of animal life were abundant. A game 
of hide-and-seek was brought to a sudden close by the discovery 
of a gray scorpion on the floor of a hiding-place near a couple 
of small bare feet. We avoided not only scorpions, but also 
centipedes, which are said to prefer occupying shoes or slippers 
left empty overnight. But especially were we told to run home 
if we saw a man on the street with a knife in his hand, for 
a method of suicide was to rush forth, and slay right and left 
till volunteer champions arose to protect themselves and the 
community by precipitating the desired violent end. Whenever 
the cry of " amuck " was heard, a hush fell on the neighborhood, 
and every non-combatant hastened out of sight. We and who- 
ever was with us were the first to run, and many were the false 
alarms. Our excursions out of the compound were limited. 



EARLY LIFE 1 3 

Two or three of us strayed away, probably unattended and 
without permission, till we reached a temple, where we filled 
our aprons with small idols of burnt clay and arrived safely 
home with our new toys. It was an unwise thing to do, of 
course, but nothing came of it. Doubtless white youngsters 
were treated with indulgence by the inhabitants, most of whom 
were in general peaceable and kindly disposed. 

It is related that Edward and his older brother Henry under- 
took to convert the heathen at one of the gates of the compound. 
Henry played a drum and Edward delivered the preachments, 
and a gentle rivalry continued through life as to which had been 
the more successful in keeping up the crowd of admiring pagans. 

Edward Stevens put on record an incident in which Eddie 
Judson was the hero. It was one of the rare occasions when 
Doctor Judson addressed an audience in English. The audience 
was a row of little boys and girls on a long settee. The story 
runs: 

" What was my surprise to observe Doctor Judson, instead of 
standing up, reading a passage of Scripture, and giving us a 
harangue, sit down in a chair in front of us and begin to tell 
us some of the wonders of creation. He told us that not only 
did the sun attract the earth, but the earth attracted the sun, 
and that the reason why objects thrown up into the air fell 
back again was because of the same force of gravitation. The 
elements of astronomy were a little too much for little Eddie 
Judson. He evidently felt that he had not been taken suf- 
ficiently into account. He became uneasy, and suddenly wriggled 
off his seat upon the floor before his father, and repeated with 
great emphasis : 

""Tis religion that can give 

Sweetest pleasures while we live; 
'Tis religion must supply 
Solid comfort when we die.' 

"'Well done,' said his father, so Eddie clambered back into 
the seat. The recitation was a fitting interlude to our children's 
meeting." 

How capricious is memory, to fill our pages with trifles, some 
of which perhaps might well have been omitted, and leave un- 
recorded father's wise advice and the soft touch of a mother's 
restraining arm. Did the morning come without a cheery^ 
word of welcome, and was there no sigh at the close of the 



14 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

day? Did not the good-night kiss go from one little bed to 
another? When the heart was light, was there no witty jest 
with an answering smile from lips long ago turned to cold 
clay? Where was outlined the robed figure uttering strangely 
accented words and trembling with inspired eloquence? And 
where in that tropic heat was the gentle form bowed in prayer 
for the conversion of the dark sisters fondly stooping to kiss her 
pale hands? These fanciful creatures are not found in the 
realm of sober recollection, but in imagination. Fond memory 
is sadly wanting at such a time when the exercise of her gentle 
arts would have been most welcome. 

Such were the scenes commonplace or picturesque in which 
my brother Edward first saw the light. It is related by a credible 
observer that he was but a wee mite, giving but little promise of 
coming ability mightily to stir the minds and hearts of men and 
women. Children of the missionaries in the far East have to be 
taken back home to the homeland to grow up, far away from 
their parents. The same is true in families of officials of the 
East India Company. It was early found that such offspring 
could not survive the climate conditions which apparently agreed 
so well with the native-born. When Doctor Judson took three 
to America he left three behind. A divided and scattered family 
presents the saddest and most perplexing problem of missionaiy 
life. 

The following graphic pen-pictures of Edward's child- 
hood surroundings are from a letter by Mrs. Emily C. 
Judson to a Utica friend. She refers to the house where 
they lived as a barnlike-looking structure, a mere board 
shanty as compared with the Utica houses. Describing 
the discomforts, she says : 

I should tell you that Edward cried in the night last night, as 
he is not well. I sprang up to go to him. As I put my foot 
upon the floor it was black with ants, no uncommon thing. We 
are obliged to have our bedstead stand constantly in water. I 
do not know whether or not I should tell you how the frogs 
hop from my sleeves when I put them on and how the lizards 
drop from the ceiling to the table when we are eating. . . You 
would not need to be told that Moulmein is a beautiful place, 
if you could see it. To my eye there is nothing in a land of 
frosts to compare with it. . . The scenery around us is perfectly 



EARLY LIFE 1 5 

charming, the hills are bristling with white and gilded pagodas. 
As you turn back upon the hills a scene unrivaled in picturesque 
beauty opens upon your view, and you involuntarily draw up 
in the middle of the street and stand erect in your stirrups. 
Here and there little houses like last year's haystacks are stuck 
down in groves of various kinds of trees, the palms, cocoa, 
orange, lime, and jack. 

Moulmein was a cosmopolitan city — a prophecy per- 
haps of the environment in which, in New York City, 
Edward Judson was to do his work. 

A portly, kinglike Mogul rolls by in his lumbering gazzee; 
a Jew, in his own peculiar costume, is wending his way to his 
merchandise, looking, poor fellow ! little like a child of Abraham ; 
the Chinaman toddles along in his high-toed shoes and silken 
trousers ; the Indian from the other coast covers himself entirely 
with his white flowing drapery, making a very ghostlike appear- 
ance as he squats on the hillside, or glides along the street; the 
ugly Portuguese, aping the ungraceful English style of dress, jogs 
his way in clerklike fashion ; and the Burman, with his checkered 
patso thrown over his shoulders and descending to his knees to 
protect him from the chill air of the morning, steps from the 
road, and stares admiringly, exclaiming meanwhile at the courage 
of the English ladies. — " Life of Emily C. Judson/' page 257. 

But soon little Edward was taken to less attractive sur- 
roundings. It had long been the dream and passionate 
desire of Adoniram Judson to establish a mission in 
Rangoon, one hundred miles distant, which had resisted 
all missionary effort. On February 22, 1847, though ad- 
vanced in years, with the courage of a pioneer, he moved 
his family to that interesting city. 

The most comfortable quarters they could find in 
Rangoon Mrs. Judson described as " Bat Castle " : 

Think of me in an immense brick house with rooms as large 
as the entire " loggery " (our center room is twice as large and 
has no window), and only one small window apiece. When I 
speak of windows, do not think I make any allusion to glass — 
of course not. The windows (holes) are closed by means of 



l6 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

heavy board or plank shutters, tinned over on the outside, as a 
preventive of fire. . . 

The partitions are all of brick and very thick, and the door-sills 
are built up, so that I go over them at three or four steps; 
Henry mounts and falls off, and Edward gets on all fours and 
accomplishes the pass with more safety. The floor overhead 
is quite low, and the beams, which are frequent, afford shelter 
to thousands and thousands of bats. . . 

The other night I awoke faint, with a feeling of suffocation, 
and without waiting to think, jumped out on the floor. You 
would have thought " Old Nick " himself had come after you, 
for, of course, you believe these firm friends of the ladies 
of the broomstick incipient imps. . . 

Besides the bats, we are blessed with our full share of cock- 
roaches, beetles, spiders, lizards, rats, ants, and mosquitoes. . . 
Only one cockroach has paid me a visit, but the neglect of these 
gentlemen has been fully made up by a company of black 
bugs about the size of the end of your little finger, nameless 
adventurers. — "Life of Emily C. Judson" page 270L 

Because of the persecution of the natives they were 
unable to secure suitable food. This is Mrs. Judson's 
description of a dinner in Bat Castle : 

As for living, I must own that I am within an inch of 
starvation, and poor little Henry says, when he sits down to 
the table, " I don't want any dinner, I wish we could go back to 
Moulmein." His father does better, for he never has a poor 
appetite. For a long time after we first came here we could get 
no bread at all ; now we get a heavy, black, sour kind, for which 
we pay just three times as much as we did at Moulmein. . . Our 
milk is a mixture of buffalo's milk, water, and something else 
which we cannot make out. . . The butter we make from it is 
like lard with flakes of tallow. . . 

I must tell you, however, of the grand dinner we had one day. 
" You must contrive and get something that mamma can eat," 
the doctor said to our Burmese purveyor; "she will starve to 
death." "What shall I get?" "Anything." "Anything?" 
" Anything ! " Well, we did have a capital dinner, though we 
tried in vain to find out by the bones what it was. Henry 
said it was touk-tahs, a species of lizard, and I should have 
thought so too, if the little animal had been of a fleshy con- 



EARLY LIFE 1 7 

sistence. Cook said he didn't know, but, he grinned a horrible 
grin, which made my stomach heave a little, notwithstand- 
ing the deliciousness of the meal. In the evening we called 
Mr. Bazaarman. "What did we have for dinner to-day?" 
" Were they good ? " " Excellent." A tremendous explosion of 
laughter, in which the cook from his dishroom joined as loud 
as he dared. "What were they?" "Rats." — ''Life of Emily 
C. Judson," page 276I 

To add to their desperate straits every member of the 
household was taken seriously ill, and at the same time 
the persecution was intensified. It seemed at one time 
that longer life would be denied little Edward. 

Something is the matter with Edward. He was wakeful all 
night, and this morning he screams out suddenly when at his 
play as in pain, and runs to me as fast as he can. Poor little 
fellow ! he cannot tell his trouble. . . He scarcely ever cries, yet 
screams seem forced from him as by a sudden blow. He runs to 
me, but recovers in a moment, and goes back to play. There 
is something very alarming in this, knowing the brave little 
fellow's disposition as I do. 

But fortunately for Edward, the scene again changes. 
The missionary board at Boston withheld funds for the 
work at Rangoon. The surrender of this field was one 
of the most severe sacrifices of Adoniram Judson's life. 
The home was again established in Moulmein. There, 
on the twenty-fourth of December, another little life 
came into the household, that of Emily Frances. 

Edward Judson's First Prayer 

One night Edward, who slept in a little room by himself, called 
out that he was afraid, and would not be comforted. I have 
never taught them a prayer to repeat, because I do not like 
the formality, but I assist them in discovering what they need, 
and then have them repeat the words after me. So I prayed 
with little Edward, kissed him good night, and left him apparently 
satisfied. Pretty soon, however, I heard him call out, in great 
distress, " O Dod ! " The poor little fellow had not suf- 



1 8 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

ficient acquaintance with the language to know what to say next, 
but this uplifting of the heart evidently relieved him, for in a 
few minutes after he again called out, " O Dod ! " but in a tone 
much softened. I stepped to the door, but hesitated about enter- 
ing. In a few moments he again repeated, " O Dod ! " but in 
a tone so confiding that I thought that I had better go back 
to my room and leave him with his great Protector. I heard 
no more of him for some time, and when at last I went in, I 
found him on his knees fast asleep. He never fails now to 
remind me of asking " Dod to tate tare of him," if I neglect it, 
and I have never heard him say a word since of being afraid. — 
"Life of Bmily C. Judson," page 292. 

The children found the father a delightful playmate : 

I have to hold a meeting with the rising generation every eve- 
ning, and that takes time. Henry can say, " Twinkle, Twinkle," 
all himself, and Edward can repeat it after his father. Giants 
of genius, paragons of erudition. — "Life of Adoniram Judson," 
page 524. 

The cloud which so frequently hung over Edward's 
home again settled, and from it again emerged the hand 
of death, but strength in weakness is revealed. The 
romance in the life of Adoniram Judson is finely shown 
by his inspiring words to Mrs. Judson just before he 
set out on his last voyage. She told him that it was the 
opinion of the missionaries that he could not recover. 

" I know it is," he replied, " and I suppose they think me an old 
man, and imagine it is nothing for one like me to resign a life 
so full of trials. But I am not old — at least not in that sense; 
you know I am not. Oh, no man ever left this world with more 
inviting prospects, with brighter hopes, or warmer feelings. I am 
not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world ; yet when 
Christ calls me home I shall go with the gladness of a boy 
bounding away from his school." 

In a last effort to restore his health, he was taken on 
board a French barge bound for Bordeaux. For four 
days Edward and his brothers saw their mother go out 



EARLY LIFE 1 9 

each morning to visit the boat and return at night heart- 
broken, but at last the boat cleared the river and sailed 
out to sea, leaving the family in heartrending suspense 
for four months. On the twenty-eighth of August, as 
the nineteenth century had reached its very meridian, 
the word came that the father had passed away only two 
weeks after bidding his family farewell. 

To America 

The whole future of Edward's life was determined 
by the decision made by his stepmother after her hus- 
band's death. At first it was her purpose to remain at 
her task, but because of the serious condition of her 
health she decided to return to America. On January 
22, 185 1, when Edward was in his seventh year, the 
little family group left Moulmein, never to return. 

The long voyage brought strength to the mother and 
the ruddy glow of health to the yellow cheeks of the 
boys. The mother wrote from London, " The sallow 
cheeks of my children are aglow with English roses." 

Leaving Liverpool on the twentieth of September on 
the Canada, they reached Boston early in October, 1851, 
where for the first time Edward saw his brothers Adoni- 
ram and Elnathan and his sister Abbie Ann. (Adoniram 
became a physician, and settled in New York City, where 
he attained distinction in orthopedic surgery. As a 
member of the Memorial Church, he was associated with 
his brother Edward for many years.) 

The family circle was at once broken, for the mother's 
health was not equal to the care of all the children. 
Dr. and Mrs. Edward Bright, into whose home they 
had been received, assumed the care of Elnathan ; Abbie 
Ann returned to her school in Philadelphia; Mrs. Jud- 
son's own daughter Emily and the two boys Henry and 
Edward went with their mother to Hamilton. But even 



20 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

there they were denied the delights of home life and the 
continued care of a mother. The next winter was spent 
in Philadelphia and in Providence, where the mother 
assisted Doctor Wayland in the preparation of her hus- 
band's biography. 

In the following June Mrs. Judson purchased a com- 
fortable house in Hamilton, New York, where she might 
reunite her family. But the pleasures of home life were 
brief. Because of the rigors of the Hamilton climate, 
the next winter the mother was compelled to live in 
Philadelphia. She left the two boys, Edward and Henry, 
in Hamilton under the care of Mr. Osborne, a student 
in the university. 

Edward Judson's life was still under her affectionate 
care. Her biographer says : " Her care extended to 
all points of manners, habits, mental and moral culture, 
while at the same time she studied carefully their diver- 
sities of temperament and cherished rather than re- 
pressed their buoyancy of spirits." The mother's pen 
was kept busy, not only in helping to write the memoirs 
of her illustrious husband, but in an effort to supple- 
ment their limited income. 

Edward was a lovable, bright, active boy. These ex- 
tracts from two letters from Mrs. Judson to Edward's 
older brothers, Adoniram and Elnathan, give evidence of 
Edward's rather remarkable promise and his early seri- 
ous purpose. On November 17, 1853, she wrote: 

The boys (Edward and Henry) really have but very little 
time to write, since the days are so short and they are obliged 
to be in school Saturday forenoon. They are doing nicely, 
especially Eddy. Mr. Buell says he is the best Latin scholar 
in the class, though it is mostly composed of full-grown gen- 
tlemen and ladies. They have commenced reading Caesar, and 
do much better than I feared. Eddy is going to make a fine 
speaker. He is cheered every time he goes on the floor. Of 
course this is partly because he is a little fellow, but then he 



EARLY LIFE 21 

speaks surprisingly well. He is indeed a most promising child, 
not so much on account of his talents, which are great, but he 
has a large soul, a generous warm heart, and he is industrious, 
persevering, and brave. I do not think I have heard him say 
can't once since he has been in school. 

In a letter of December ninth of the same year Mrs. 
Judson says : 

Eddy had the honor to speak before the Philomathian Society, 
or rather at a public meeting of that Society, last evening. He 
was applauded vociferously by a crowded audience; not, of 
course, that he is a perfect orator in his babyhood, but he 
speaks remarkably well, and was the only boy in a society of 
young men. Sometimes I am afraid so much praise will hurt 
him, but he doesn't seem to mind it, takes it all in his honest, 
good-natured way as a matter of course. To-day closes the 
term. Eddy's report is perfect; Henry's not quite, but he has 
done very well. Did I ever tell you I had a hope Eddy is a 
Christian? I have cherished it secretly a long time; and now 
Eddy begins modestly to speak of it himself. He thinks he 
loves the Saviour; he wants to serve him. May the Holy Spirit 
turn all of his natural greatness, his talents, his industry, his 
indomitable perseverance, his largeness of soul into the Lord's 
treasury, and add the grains of true holiness. 

In 1854, Edward's tenth year, the mother's health 
rapidly declined. Her literary work was laid aside for- 
ever. In June the end came. In no small degree was 
the life of Edward Judson shaped by this remarkable 
woman, in whom were blended a great wealth of affec- 
tion, a breadth of culture, and a depth of religious devo- 
tion. 

Edward was then an orphan. Association with his 
brothers and sisters was denied him, for they had to be 
separated. He w r as welcomed into the home of Rev. Ebe- 
nezer Dodge, professor in Madison University (now 
Colgate), of which he became president a few years 
later. His half-sister Emily was committed to the care 



22 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

of Miss Ann Maria Anable. The other children were 
given comfortable though temporary homes. 

During his years in the home of Doctor Dodge, a 
college president of the most noble type, beloved of every 
alumnus of Colgate University who came within his 
influence, Edward Judson received many influences which 
shaped his character and doubtless helped to determine 
his career. The Rev. Jonathan Bastow, classmate in 
academy and college, gives this interesting picture : 

Doctor Dodge was proud of him and anxious to secure for 
him the best possible education. Mrs. Dodge was an excellent 
motherly woman of rare intelligence and kindness. She loved 
Edward very fondly, as there was no other child in the family. 
Edward had a smile in his boyhood days that was very charm- 
ing. You could see that his whole soul was behind it. He had 
a loving disposition, a contented spirit, his life was full of 
joy and hope, and he expressed all that by the beautiful smiling 
countenance and his sweet tones of voice and gentle bearing. 

Residents in Hamilton tell to this day how this youth 
of promise grew to strength of manhood in their village. 



II 

SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 

In the study of any noble outstanding life you can almost 
always discover in the background certain obscure personalities 
that have contributed largely to its splendor and efficiency; as a 
river owes the force of its current to secret springs nestling 
among the hills. — Edward Judson. 

HOW many obscure personalities contributed to the 
efficiency of Edward Judson's life we may not 
know, but few lives have been touched by so many men 
and women of genius as was his. If to sit on the end 
of a log opposite Mark Hopkins was to touch influences 
like those of a university, what could daily fellowship 
with Ebenezer Dodge, in whose home Edward Judson 
was nurtured, have meant to the keenly sensitive youth? 
The year before Edward Judson was brought to Ham- 
ilton, Doctor Dodge became Professor of Evidences of 
Revealed Religion in Madison (now Colgate) University 
and of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation in the Theo- 
logical Seminary. He did not become president, the office 
in which he wielded his great life influence, until 1868, 
the year that Edward Judson was elected to a regular 
professorship in the same institution. Certain of Doctor 
Dodge's characteristics found their counterpart in Ed- 
ward Judson. " From youth to age he was a good lin- 
guist," said Dr. William N. Clarke in his memorial 
address on Ebenezer Dodge. " His taste for books 
amounted to a hunger, and his taste for beauty to a 
thirst. . . He had a keen appreciation in art; he was 
an eager student of painting, of architecture, of an- 
tiquities. . . This fine pure taste leavened his life. His 
c 23 



24 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

whole bearing and influence illustrated the value of high 
tastes as an element in character. In spirit, as we all 
know, he was independent. Throughout his life he recog- 
nized and claimed that first right of intellectual man- 
hood, the right of thinking for himself." 

Edward Judson's aptness of expression may have been 
cultivated by Doctor Dodge, of whom Doctor Clarke said : 
" A certain Yankee shrewdness and native wit was added 
to all the rest, which often condensed his wise thought 
into a fine sententiousness. His accidental sayings were 
often terse and wise, like the Proverbs of Solomon." But 
above these characteristics Doctor Dodge was a man of 
sincere piety, and " Into all his thinking entered as a rul- 
ing element his reverence toward God and his spirituality 
of mind. He prayed, spoke, taught, lived, as a devout 
man, a child of God. . . The God of perfect goodness 
was a living reality in his own life. He was sure that 
this world was the world of God, and he never feared 
to trust it to his care and wisdom." Doctor Dodge was 
a towering personality. He knew how to impart his con- 
victions to a growing youth. " His personality made his 
way and achieved his victories. He stood among us a man 
whose stature was the true symbol of his eminence, and 
the vigor of whose step pictured the force of his char- 
acter." At the hand of such a master educator, Edward 
Judson received his informal training during his most 
plastic years. 

Rev. Jonathan Bastow, a classmate, says : 

When, on February I, 1856, I entered the preparatory depart- 
ment of Madison University, it numbered forty-eight, with several 
students of rare ability; among them was Edward Judson, then 
twelve years of age, much younger than any other member of 
the class. He was not with us in all of his studies, the inten- 
tion being not to press him too much with study on account of 
his youthfulness. 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 2$ 

Having seen the rare linguistic ability of his father 
and mother and that Doctor Dodge loved language study 
and excelled in it, we are not surprised that Edward too 
showed marked ability as a linguist. " I remember particu- 
larly his rare ability in the languages," says Mr. Bastow. 

He was as familiar, apparently, with the rules of the English 
grammar as with his alphabet. I remember when he began the 
study of Latin and Greek, he recited with exceedingly great 
accuracy. His translations were always clear and accurate. I 
shall never forget his analysis of a brief paragraph in Latin, 
which required a longer time than usually given a student in a 
recitation, being done so perfectly that it called forth an 
applause from the class. He thoroughly mastered all of his 
lessons in every department, but I think he was perhaps a 
little more accurate and at ease in the languages than in 
anything else. 

Though Doctor Dodge was a professor in Madison Uni- 
versity, it seems altogether fitting that he should have 
matriculated Edward at the close of his freshman year 
at Brown University, especially as Edward's father had 
graduated from Brown in 1807, his brother Elnathan in 
186 1, and his brother Adoniram in 1859. 

Edward Judson's files have preserved the record of 
but one incident during his college course. That incident 
is illuminating. With others, he had incurred the dis- 
pleasure of the faculty by signing a certain paper. As 
President Sears suspected that Edward was the leader in 
its circulation, he suspended him. He left Providence 
at once, and went to his aunt's at Plymouth, where he 
made his home during his college course. A classmate, 
in writing to him on January 9, 1864, makes this inter- 
esting comment on his refusal to sign some disavowal as 
demanded by the president : 

This afternoon I spent at Professor Green's. Mrs. Green de- 
livered your kind message to myself, expressed her gladness in 



26 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

hearing from you, and said also that she had much more 
respect for you, not signing the paper, than for those who signed 
that important document with a mental reservation. So said the 
professor. 

His college chum, Miner R. Deming, interviewed the 
president in Edward's behalf, but without his knowledge. 

The doctor said that they were all pleased at the stand you 
have taken intellectually, but think that you like best to cut up 
and have a good time. I told him I was sorry they had such a 
poor appreciation of your character. I defended you as warmly 
and candidly as I knew how. 

Edward Judson's standing in the student body is reflected 
by this observation of his friend : " The feeling through 
college is quite strong in favor of you. They talk of 
getting up a petition in your behalf in the senior class 
and also in ours." This incident, so characteristic of 
student bodies, reflects the same attitude : " The fellows 
inquire after you every day. This morning Professor 
Green called your name. Although it was quite unex- 
pected, it created an instantaneous and respectable stamp." 
These incidents are cited to show Edward Judson's in- 
nate independence of spirit, his standing as a student, 
and, incidentally, his popularity with his fellows. In 
college, as in later life, he was always a man. Whether 
in camp, or tent, or committee conference, he stood under 
his own burden and never leaned upon another. 

Edward Judson was graduated with the degree of 
bachelor of arts on September 6, 1865. He was chosen 
to deliver the classical oration, taking for his theme, 
" The Myth of Prometheus Vinctus." By his scholarship 
he won a coveted Phi Beta Kappa key. 

He accepted the principalship of Leland and Gray 
Seminary at Townshend, Vermont, where he served 
with marked success for two years. In later years he 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 2^ 

had delight in telling how a farmer, mistaking him for 
one of the boys in the school, called out, " Here, bub, 
help me load this grain." Though youthful in appear- 
ance, this letter written to his sister in April, 1867, re- 
flects the trend of his thought and his very serious pur- 
pose at the time. 

I am sadly undecided as to my future course of life. I think 
I have gleaned all the benefits which accrue from teaching in 
Townshend, and perhaps from teaching anywhere. In fact, strange 
as it may seem, teaching is losing its charm for me. I feel the 
more sad in view of this discontent, because I feel as if I had as 
good a chance of doing good by teaching here as by engaging 
in any other profession. My school is a kind of little church and 
congregation, and made up too, of persons of such an age that 
they can be most easily impressed by the subject of religion. We 
have two prayer-meetings a week, one on Wednesday evening and 
one on Monday evening. So that every term there are several 
conversions, and sometimes we have extensive revivals, in which 
almost all the unconverted in school are turned to God. . . 

In view of these things I have a growing conviction that as 
the conversion of sinners is the noblest business of life, I could 
not accomplish any more good by directly becoming a minister 
than I can by remaining a teacher and yet do some pastoral work. 
Connect with this growing conviction my growing discontent in the 
business of teaching, and you can gain some idea of the distracted 
and restless state of mind which I indulge in. . . One of the bit- 
terest curses of life is the fact that we are called on to make the 
most important decisions — decisions which involve our whole 
future happiness, just at that time of life when we have the least 
experience. 

After his retirement from this school he entered the 
theological department of Madison University, in the 
fall of 1867, but remained for a few weeks only, when 
he became Instructor in Languages in the university. 
In 1868 he became Professor of Latin and Modern 
Languages. This brought him into close association with 
Doctor Dodge, who in the same year was elected to the 
presidency. In this position Edward Judson's tastes as 



28 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

a linguist had free scope. Colgate men of that period 
are enthusiastic in speaking of Professor Judson as a 
teacher of Latin. 

He was following the line of least resistance. By 
hereditary tendency, by early training, and by choice he 
was a linguist and as naturally a teacher. But there 
was another inherited trait which was dominant. His 
soul was of the heroic type. For Edward Judson the 
line of least resistance was the line most to be resisted. 
He instinctively took the hard and rugged way. Dur- 
ing this professorship he was accustomed to preach in 
schoolhouses and in neighboring churches. Some of these 
early sermons are still preserved. It was during this 
time that he began to apply to Bible study his skill as 
a linguist. From that time almost to the day of his 
death it was his custom to read daily a portion of the 
Old Testament and a portion of the New Testament in 
two or more languages and in systematic course so as 
to cover the entire Old Testament once and the New 
Testament twice during each year. A much worn Bible, 
that is now among the cherished possessions of the writer, 
gives a record of these readings from 1877 down to 
Monday, October nineteenth, preceding his death on Fri- 
day the twenty-third. The record shows that these read- 
ings were in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, French, and 
English. One of the writer's delightful recollections of 
association with Doctor Judson concerns a Sunday morn- 
ing in September, 1912, when, in camp on an island in 
the center of Tomogami Lake in the heart of the Cana- 
dian woods where man's hand had made neither road 
nor clearing, Doctor Judson read aloud in Llebrew and 
translated into English while the writer followed a Latin 
translation. 

It was during the period of his residence in Hamilton 
that he married Antoinette Barstow, the daughter of the 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 20, 

Rev. Charles Barstow, a Congregational pastor then 
located at Lebanon, New York, seven miles from Hamil- 
ton. 

In 1874, Professor Judson resigned his professorship, 
and with Mrs. Judson sailed for Europe for a year of 
study and travel. While they were abroad the North 
Orange Baptist Church, one of the churches known in 
that day, as in this, for its culture, its wide educational 
and missionary outlook, and for its general strength and 
aggressiveness, called him as its pastor. 

While he resigned his professorship and became a 
pastor, he did not cease to be a scholar and a teacher. 
He carried his scholarly habits into the pastorate, and 
never ceased to be a teacher, though he had become 
pastor and preacher. 

He took particular pleasure, as did his father, in train- 
ing young men. His connection with educational insti- 
tutions gave him a greater opportunity for such in- 
fluence than his father ever had. To the close of his 
life he was accustomed to invite groups of young min- 
isters to his study one morning each week for homiletical 
work. He required only that each of the group should 
preach in his own pulpit the sermon which all had helped 
to shape. 

He continued his scholarly pursuits to the end of his 
life, though in later years his exacting responsibilities 
limited his opportunity. He found daily Bible study a 
superb field for a comparative language study. He was 
a careful student of English literature, particularly of 
the poets, and as he had opportunity he took courses in 
university classrooms. Late in life he took lectures in 
Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary, and a course in 
the Minor Prophets in Hebrew at Chicago University. 
His university courses included studies in Sociology and 
History at Columbia and New York Universities. The 



30 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

example he set in taking postgraduate study, though beset 
by clamorous duties, led other ministers to pursue similar 
courses. The writer is grateful for such an influence in 
his own life. 

Doctor Judson's desire for definite teaching in college 
or seminary would not down. During his ministry at 
North Orange and the early years of his life in New 
York City, he denied the impulse, but when, in 1897, he 
was invited to act as Instructor in Pastoral Theology in 
the Theological Seminary of Colgate University, he 
yielded. During the winter term he gave lectures on 
" Church Organizations and Work and Pastoral Duties," 
but preached in his own pulpit on Sundays. He was the 
more willing to do this because it brought some financial 
relief to the Memorial Church which, from about that 
time until the day of his death, presented financial prob- 
lems difficult to meet. 

The welcome which he received in Hamilton is fittingly 
expressed by his friend, Dr. William N. Clarke : 

You will be welcome to our fellowship and affection, and 
an open door of useful service will be before you here. I shall 
personally enjoy having you near, for it will give me a fresh sense 
of present fellowship that will be grateful to my heart. 

Edward Judson gave this charming picture of the home 
which at that time he established in Hamilton: 

I have a rambling old frame house up in Hamilton — a kind 
of shell into which I can withdraw when I grow old. It is 
pleasant to have a little place to which to retire when New York 
has little by little squeezed the juice out of me like an orange, 
leaving nothing but the acrid rind. In front of the house is 
a pretty little lawn, and back of it a yard, where stand some 
ancient apple trees, and back of all is an old ramshackle barn, 
where the pigeons make their nests. Now these old apple 
trees are very interesting. In the early spring they seem 
dead. The boughs and twigs are bare, but after a little while 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 3 1 

there come leaf-buds; these unfold, and the trees are clothed 
with leaves. Then the beautiful blossoms, then the falling of 
the petals, and then is left the tiny green fruit. The leaf always 
comes first, then the blossom, then the fruit. 

He once found himself an intruder in his own home : 

In the early summer, a robin came and built her nest in 
the porch of my little country cottage. The place had been 
left unoccupied during the winter and spring. When I dis- 
covered her advent, I was much pleased that she had chosen 
my little house for her home. She had already laid four eggs 
in her nest — the hostages of fortune. I began at once to 
form plans for cooperating with her domestic economy. There 
soon would be four great yellow mouths wide open and clamor- 
ous for nourishment. I would put food close at hand. The 
mother bird would not have to make long and laborious foraging 
expeditions. What do you suppose that robin did? Directly 
she became aware of my return she deserted her nest. Nothing 
would bring her back. She sat in a near-by tree, sullen and 
suspicious, and allowed her nest with all its precious freight 
to lapse into ruin. She would not trust me, so I could do noth- 
ing for her. Poor human nature finds it just as hard to trust 
God, and yet we shall never learn to love him, except as we 
acquiesce in a relation of perfect dependence upon him, so that 
he shall have his way through us. — An extract from a sermon. 

Doctor Judson's ability as teacher was soon recognized 
in a signal manner by three strong educational institu- 
tions. By each of these recognitions he was compelled 
to make a decision quite as difficult as when he relin- 
quished teaching to go into the Christian ministry, or 
when he surrendered his protected pastorate in North 
Orange to devote himself to social missionary service in 
lower New York with neither adequate personal support 
nor equipment for his work. 

During the academic year ending in June, 1898, he 
was earnestly sought as president of Brown University, 
his alma mater, and also by Colgate University. 



32 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

In July, 1898, a member of the faculty of Brown Uni- 
versity wrote: 

And the one thing that I desire for the future, as I have 
desired it and have expressed my desire for years, from before 
Doctor Robinson's resignation, is that you shall be the president 
of Brown University. I believe that you and the position have 
been preparing for each other. I want to tell you that a host 
of people will rejoice to have you here. I know the faculty, 
and I am sure that you will have their cordial and earnest 
support. The alumni will give you hearty welcome; and I am 
sure that no man can expect so much from them as you may be 
justified in expecting. I don't desire to see your great work 
in New York suffer, but I hope that the time has come when it 
will not be imperiled if you can lay it on others and come over 
to a great work here. 

That strong pressure was brought to bear upon him 
not only by the faculty, but also by the members of the 
corporation, is evident from the following letter from a 
prominent member of that body under date of the same 
year : 

I am in receipt of your kind letter of the eleventh, and am 
filled with disappointment at its contents. I have sent it to 
Doctor Hovey, the chairman of our committee, who will reply 
direct. In the meantime, I wish I could see some ray of hope 
in the direction the entire corporation and faculty of Brown 
University have been looking. 

I, with others, have had my heart set on seeing you at the 
head of that university, especially during the time that my 
own boys are being educated there, but if it is not to be, it is 
not. If you are open to argument, however, I could give you 
many reasons why you should not turn this down. 

Another member of the corporation, who had written 
earlier in the year, wrote, " I beg you to come to Brown." 

He was as earnestly sought for the presidency of 
Colgate University during the latter part of the academic 
year of 1898. The following memorial was presented 
by the members of the university faculty : 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 3$ 

To the Rev. Edward Judson, D. D., New York: 

The undersigned, members of the faculty of Colgate University, 
do most sincerely and urgently request that you will favorably 
consider the overtures made to you by our trustees, with refer- 
ence to your becoming our president. We are of one mind in 
the desire that you may become president of Colgate University, 
and in support of this desire and request we would urge the 
following considerations : 

We are convinced that you have exceptional power to unite 
the working forces of the university, including trustees, faculty, 
and students, and at the same time to represent and commend us 
abroad, and hold the favor and support of our friends everywhere. 

We plainly see that there is ample work for you here, worthy 
of your best abilities and offering large opportunities of use- 
fulness. A noble service, both educational and religious, awaits 
you if you come to us. 

Our call to you is the expression of a real need, for we are 
suffering for want of an executive head, and are certain hence- 
forth to suffer still more if we do not obtain one; and we 
see in you the man that we want. 

For these reasons we wish you to come to us, and we trust 
that in all this you may see providential indications of your duty. 
Sincerely hoping for a favorable result, we are, etc. 

This was signed by every member of the faculty except 
three; two of these were absent and the third had re- 
signed, but two of these three sent personal letters. One 
member of the faculty, eminent in his department, wrote 
under date of May first : 

Will you permit me to tell you in a more private and per- 
sonal way how genuine and cordial is the petition which has 
come to you from the members of our faculty. The unsettled 
conditions of the past years press home the demand for a head, 
not less for aggressive administration than that his presence 
and spirit may filter down through all that share the life of the 
university. You would be such a president. In the utmost sin- 
cerity and freedom, may I tell you this. Your knowledge of 
our history, your love of this place, your gentleness, toleration, 
and firmness, and the universal respect of the churches of our 
name for you, fit you for us in a singular way. I do not know 



34 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

of any one to whom the faculty turn with so much harmony 
as to you. 

The following letter from Dr. William N. Clarke re- 
flects the intimacy of the two men, and makes it quite 
clear that many of Doctor Judson's friends felt that he, 
Mrs. Judson, and their daughters had filled to the full 
the measure of their sacrifice and that he ought in his 
last years to devote himself to work that would be less 
rigorous in its demands. 

The period of heaviest sacrifice in your enterprise in New 
York is now past. The heaviest of the sacrifice of that period 
has been made by you and by your family. No one else has 
sacrificed anything like as much as you and your wife and 
children. To a friend and lover outside, it looks as if enough 
had gone from that quarter into the enterprise, or at least as 
if you four would be justified in taking up some other worthy 
service, and trusting that enterprise to other hands. Some one 
else will have to take it by and by, as a matter of course, and 
to me it seems that now is the time. 

Besides, we want you, just you yourself, and not another. So 
come along, and give us your hand, and do us good. We 
want you immensely and we don't want to take no for an 
answer. Don't let me have to speak to you again. 

It was quite another plea that came from Doctor Jud- 
son's associates in New York. He had put his hand to 
the plow, and could not turn back. Mr. George Well- 
wood Murray, a lawyer of high standing, secretary of 
the board of trustees of the Memorial Church, who, 
actuated by the same motive as Doctor Judson, had stood 
for long years by his side, wrote under date of May 
thirty-first : 

Your recent letter has filled me with dismay and foreboding. 
I do not for an instant doubt your perfect sincerity in believ- 
ing that you could conduct the proposed new work at Hamilton 
and the old work at New York at the same time, but I am satis- 
fied that in this you are mistaken. And what would become 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 35 

of the Memorial Church, either on its spiritual side or its 
financial side, I do not know and fear to contemplate ! I know 
very well, and I think appreciate fully, the forces that would 
draw you to the work at Hamilton. It is an entirely honorable 
work, and I can well understand that educational work would 
be in accordance with your own tastes. But here lies this church, 
humanly speaking, absolutely your own creation. Many of us 
think that it embodies the solution of a mighty problem. It is 
largely the expression of your own individuality. I do not 
believe that you can afford to leave it. 

His long-time associate, the Rev. James M. Bruce, 
wrote just at that time with no less feeling and convic- 
tion: 

I can well understand the attractions which the latter position 
has for you. At the same time, when I call up before my mind's 
eye that superb property that you have acquired and created 
at the historic New York Square, and in a locality where it 
stands for so much that is grandest in missionary achievement, 
the position of its presiding and inspiring head seems to me 
one that any man might be glad to give all his life to, all his 
life long. With what it involves in the way of molding and 
impelling influence for similar endeavor, it is in my estimation 
a greater and more distinguished post than the other. 

Feeling unable to leave his own peculiar task, and 
being greatly drawn to the presidency, he thought seri- 
ously of accepting the latter, though continuing as pastor 
of the Memorial Church, but on June 7, 1898, in a letter 
to Mr. James C. Colgate, with characteristic self-sur- 
render, he gave up the opportunity. 

I hasten to send you my final decision, and I must say I do 
so with the greatest reluctance and even sorrow. I do not see 
my way clear to accept the presidency even with the proviso that 
I could hold at the same time pastoral relations with my church 
here. I have really been very strongly drawn toward Colgate 
by many threads of interest and affection, and while I have 
almost constantly thought upon this subject, I could not for the 
life of me make up my mind before. Even now I cannot thor- 
oughly analyze the motives which compel me to decline these 



36 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

overtures from yourself and the professors at Hamilton. I 
can only say that the general impression made by all my thinking 
on the subject, is that while I may be more wanted there, I am 
more needed here. . . It has formed a turning-point in my 
life, and my indecision has been deeply sincere. I cannot tell 
you how profoundly happy it makes me to be wanted in Hamilton. 

If in the following chapters the reader comes to see 
something of the " blood-spitting struggle " (to use a 
phrase of Doctor Judson's) which was involved in these 
decisions to stand by the Memorial Church and its prob- 
lems, he will understand something of its cost and sig- 
nificance. 

Doctor Judson's teaching ability was again recognized, 
this time by Chicago University, when, in 1903, he was 
elected to the chair of Homiletics in the Divinity School. 
Doctor Judson explained this new relationship as follows : 

I arranged with President Harper to serve as head of the 
Department of Homiletics during two quarters of two successive 
years, 1904 and 1905, with the understanding that at the end of 
that time I was to face the question of giving up my work in 
New York and devoting myself exclusively to the interests of 
the seminary. 

He was the more ready to enter into the relation be- 
cause of the condition of his health. He had been granted 
a leave of absence from his church to take a year of rest 
in Europe. He cut his sojourn short to take up this new 
service. True to his conviction that theological educa- 
tion should be accompanied by practical service under 
direction, he became acting pastor of the Parkside Branch 
of the Lexington Avenue Baptist Church that he might 
have a clinic in which to train his students. But again 
the call of imperative duty brought him back to New 
York. The secretary of the Board of Trustees of his 
church in August, 1903, made this urgent appeal: 

Shutting my eyes on the Memorial for the moment, I can see 
much to be said for the professorship. It is a position of honor, 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 2>7 

of great usefulness, congenial, I think, and in which I have 
no doubt you will meet with great success and do much good. 
Of course I note, and am glad to note, the two-year period, 
and recognize your desire to make it a bridge — even a cantilever, 
which may be pulled back — but two things occur to me. Not to 
speak of your spiritual commitment — a matter by itself and of 
grave importance — your financial commitment (in securing gifts, 
annuities, etc.) has been so great morally that it is difficult to 
see how you can get your shoulder from under the wheel until 
the load gets lighter. 

The Advisory Board of the church felt compelled to 
take this action under date of May, 1904: 

With our present light it seems to us inevitable that the spir- 
itual interests of the church — its growth and prominence as a 
living force in the redemption of lower New York — require 
your presence and all of your energies. The temporal condition 
of the church is distinctly worse than w T e had hoped and believed 
it would be. In a word, we cannot at present prudently sustain 
further annuities, and therefore probably shall not be able to 
reduce our debt, and we are running behind in our expenses at 
the rate of about $6,000 per annum. 

Your presence, we believe, w r ill revive the work on every hand. 
In an important sense, the work is yours. We believe that your 
personality is so identified with it in the mind of the church 
and the view of the community that during your life it must be 
led by you. Facts demonstrate that you cannot successfully lead 
it, either spiritually or financially, at such a distance and with 
energies devoted to other things. 

He could do no other than to respond to this appeal, 
but the full import of his decision cannot be understood 
except in the light of facts brought out in later chapters. 

Referring to his resignation, President Harper, in 
August, 1904, said, " I wish very much that I could 
talk things over with you before you reach a final 
conclusion." The official action of the university is re- 
corded in Mr. Goodspeed's letter of July twenty-ninth : 

With great regret the trustees of the Theological Union of the 
university have accepted your resignation. They wish me to 



38 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

express to you the sense they have of the very great value of 
your services to the institution during the two years of your 
service. The difficulty of your separating yourself from your 
church in New York is appreciated by the trustees, however, 
and they regretfully assent to the sundering of the relations, a 
separation which was contemplated as possible at the time of 
your original appointment. 

The severance of this relation was dictated by a severe 
sense of duty. Doctor Judson, referring to his life in 
Chicago, said: 

It is with very sincere regret that I relinquish my duties in 
the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. I have greatly 
enjoyed the fellowship of the ministers in the Chicago Conference 
and elsewhere. The climate of Chicago has greatly strengthened 
my health. In connection with my other work I took up the 
study of the Minor Prophets during the spring quarter in one 
of President Harper's classes, and was deeply impressed by his 
devotion and constructive spirit. Meanwhile I shall not lose in 
lower New York the inspiration of the thinking done here, nor 
shall I soon forget the winelike breezes swaying the boughs of 
the trees and making the leaves incessantly tremulous, even 
during the hottest days of summer. I am to take up similar 
work in connection with the Divinity School at Colgate Univer- 
sity during the winter and spring terms. 

His deep regret at the necessity of leaving Chicago was 
softened somewhat by his satisfaction in entering a new 
relation with the Theological Seminary of Colgate Uni- 
versity. Under the new plan his own church was used 
as a clinic in which the Colgate theological students 
received training under his direction. Each senior class 
spent the winter term in New York, while Doctor Judson 
was in residence in Hamilton during the spring term. 
These extracts from his introductory lecture to his course 
on homiletics show something of his analytical powers, 
his clear-cut definition, and the range of his lectures: 

Homiletics is a branch of rhetoric. It is the science which 
treats of the nature, the classification, the analysis, the construe- 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 39 

tion, and the composition of the sermon. It deals with the 
technique of the art of preaching. In homiletics I give three 
courses during the year, each course running through an academic 
quarter. 

The first course has to do with the theory of sermon production. 
We pursue five practical lines of effort. 

Each day I give a familiar lecture on the subject. The lectures 
deal first with the making of the minister, and secondly with the 
making of the sermon. Education means the symmetrical de- 
velopment of the whole man. The making of the minister 
involves bodily health, which is conditioned on food, air, clean- 
liness, and exercise; also mental health, which is achieved not by 
eager striving to produce some notable and definite effect, but 
by filling up each day with systematic occupation — reading and 
writing, study, recreation, and exercise. Also social health is 
requisite. 

But besides bodily health, mental health, and social health, the 
minister needs spiritual health. 

(Further reference to his lectures on The Making of 
a Minister will be found in Chapter VII.) 

When we come to the making of the sermon, I describe the 
Ideal Sermon, showing it to be scriptural and extemporaneous 
and illustrative and intelligible and positive and persuasive and 
brief. Then I take up sermon production itself, and consider 
the selection of the text, the selection of the context, the gather- 
ing of materials through the study of the versions, the study of 
the commentaries, the study of the historic background, the 
search for illustrations and the method of preserving them. I 
then take up the process of incubation, the emergence of the 
plan — subject or proposition, introduction, divisions, subdivisions, 
conclusion. I show how to conserve the results of our study — 
first the loose notes, then the whole sermon on a single page, then 
the full outline, then the written sermon. I consider the final 
preparation of Saturday and Sunday, and the Sunday evening 
contemplation of the work achieved. 

But besides the text-book and the lectures, my students and 
I are all the time at work together making a sermon, which 
serves to illustrate the principles which I teach. 

I require besides a certain amount of collateral reading — 
the "Life of Phillips Brooks," for instance, together with his 
D 



40 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

" Yale Lectures on Preaching," and the student is required to 
give me a paper in which he embodies the results of his reading. 

I have a daily social hour at my rooms. The students are 
invited to come and see me, and after a cup of tea we read 
aloud together, on Tuesday the sermon of some great preacher, 
on Wednesday we read from Shakespeare, on Thursday from the 
Bible, and on Friday from devotional literature, as Augustine's 
" Confessions," Thomas a Kempis, and also from some of the 
modern mystics. 

My second course in homiletics has to do not so much 
with the theory of sermon-making as with the actual construc- 
tion of sermons. 

The main part of our work consists in producing sermons 
together, the class choosing the texts. During the quarter just 
closed the students elected first, out of the miscellaneous subjects, 
Obedience to the Heavenly Vision. Then a miracle was taken, 
The Stilling of the Tempest ; then a parable, The Prodigal Son ; 
then a psalm, the Ninety-first Psalm; then a moral subject, Tem- 
perance; then a doctrinal subject, the Atonement, which natu- 
rally suggested a series of sermons upon : Man's Sinfulness, God's 
Love, the Incarnation, the Sinless Sufferer, Repentance, Faith, 
Divine Forgiveness, or Justification, the Believer's Conformity 
to Christ, or Sanctification. 

Along with these studies, we have had for the most of the 
time, teacher and student together, a kind of homiletical clinic 
or laboratory, going in a body to a meeting either at some church 
or at a mission, one of the students preaching, and the rest 
promoting the interest of the service with their best efforts. At 
a session of the class on the following day the sermon preached is 
thoroughly criticized by the class and by the teacher, as regards 
its logical structure, its rhetorical features, the delivery, the 
pulpit deportment of the preacher, etc. 

Yet one other school, of high academic rank, was to 
register its confidence in Doctor Judson's ability as a 
teacher. In October he was chosen to give a course of 
lectures to the Baptist students in the Union Theological 
Seminary on " The Distinctive Principles of Baptists." 
Referring to the attitude of the faculty, Doctor Sanders, 
through whose generosity the lectureship was estab- 
lished, said (October 25, 1905), "You are not persona 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 41 

grata, but graiissima." Acting President Dr. George W. 
Knox, in a letter to Doctor Judson, said: 

I feel like congratulating the seminary very warmly upon this 
new and most significant departure, and I am very grateful to 
you and to Doctor Sanders. If, as you suggested in your remarks, 
it is something remarkable that a seminary founded by one 
denomination should welcome men of another, it is at least as 
remarkable and truly Christian that men should be ready to give 
freely as you and Doctor Sanders give to an institution of a 
different name. What a beautiful symbol it is of the good time 
to come when we shall be neither of Paul nor Cephas nor Apollos, 
but one with Christ. 

At the close of the year Doctor Knox expressed the 
hearty appreciation of the faculty and of the students 
of the work which Doctor Judson had done. This rela- 
tionship continued through the next academic year, after 
which Dr. Harry E. Fosdick was appointed to succeed 
Doctor Judson (eventually entering into a full professor- 
ship). 

While Doctor Judson rendered large service as a 
teacher, lecturer, and professor during sixteen years of the 
forty-nine which elapsed between his graduation from 
Brown University and his death, his influence in the field 
of education was by no means confined to his personal ser- 
vice in the classroom. The arrangement which he made 
for the senior class of the Colgate Theological Seminary 
to study social conditions under direction has become a 
permanent one — a notable recognition of the principle for 
which he stood so strenuously — that theological study 
should be accompanied by study of social conditions and 
ameliorative efforts, and as far as possible by practical 
work under direction. He had large influence in the 
establishment of the Italian Department of Colgate Uni- 
versity. In writing to Dr. Hinton S. Lloyd in February, 
1906, referring to a conversation which he had had 
with Rev. Antonio Mangano, he said : 



42 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

I find that he (Mr. Mangano) is very hospitable to our plan of 
a combined Italian training-school and mission in our church, the 
school being a branch of the Hamilton Theological Seminary, like 
the German department at Rochester and the Scandinavian de- 
partment at Chicago, and the mission being a branch of our work, 
but serving as a laboratory or clinic to the school. Nothing 
could be more timely, as all our denominational societies are in 
danger of muddling the immense and exigent Italian problem 
through the lack of an educated Italian ministry. A divinity 
school of this kind will shape the character of Italian Baptist 
churches in this country. 

This school was established at the Dietz Memorial in 
Brooklyn, not at the Memorial Church — another of the 
many times when Doctor Judson was brought to the 
border-land of the realization of some hope or ideal, 
and was forbidden to enter. 

It was Doctor Judson's great desire that a Baptist 
theological seminary should be established in New York 
City. He felt that through it the Baptist forces in New 
York would be better prepared to join with those of the 
other communions in meeting the critical demands of the 
metropolis. He made repeated efforts to effect the trans- 
fer to New York City of either Rochester Seminary or of 
the Theological Seminary of Colgate University, and in- 
deed endeavored to bring about the consolidation of these 
two schools and their reestablishment in New York. 

Aside from this influence on theological education 
Doctor Judson sustained an important relation to the 
development of Vassar College and Brown and Colgate 
Universities. He served as trustee of Vassar from 1888 
to 1914, the date of his death. During the last few 
weeks of his life he rendered active service on the com- 
mittee appointed to nominate a president for that institu- 
tion. He served as trustee of Brown University from 
1880 to 1907, and as a fellow from 1907 to the time of 
his death. He was trustee of Colgate University from 



SCHOLAR, TEACHER, AND EDUCATOR 43 

1901 till 1906, when he resigned, because of his election 
to a professorship. He received the following academic 
degrees : Bachelor of Arts, Brown University, 1865 ; Mas- 
ter of Arts, Brown University, 1868; Doctor of Divinity, 
Colgate University, 1881. 

As an organizer he never lost sight of the educational 
significance of his social creations. For example, in dis- 
cussing the proposed organization of the Italian School 
and Mission, he said: 

We would not need to aspire to bigness, either as regards school 
or mission. A small craft built on fine lines will outlive a big 
raft in any storm. The school must be a model to the denom- 
ination, and the mission a model to all the Italian churches and 
missions — a model, I mean, in polity and methods of self-support 
and benevolence (envelope system, etc.), in music, in service, in 
evangelism, in conditions of church-membership, etc. 

I would not be in favor of taking into our school any students 
except men of strong character and brilliant abilities, for the 
school must never become an asylum for dependents. Our 
motto should be, few but fit. 

Never for success or favor would he depart from his 
own high ideals. He thought of his social undertakings as 
a demonstration for other institutions and as a clinic for 
the training of other men. In him the pedagogic sense 
was highly developed. 

The persistence of the teacher instinct, habit, or point 
of view throughout the whole of Edward Judson's life 
was one of the most determining factors in his life and 
work. It is one explanation both of his strength and of 
his weakness as a preacher and as an administrator. 



Ill 

PASTOR AND PREACHER 

The minister is a kind of artist. Now it is the function of 
art to transmute the fleeting images of the mind into im- 
perishable objective forms, which the appreciative spirit of 
man can seize and appropriate for all time to come. 

Preaching is the exudation of a richly nourished nature as the 
fruit is the overflow of the tree life. — Edward Judson. 

IN calling Prof. Edward judson as pastor, the North 
Orange Baptist Church showed fine discernment. It 
selected one who in later years was generally regarded 
as a preacher of rare ability, and whose standing as pas- 
tor and preacher was recognized by two theological sem- 
inaries, which sought him as Professor of Homiletics. 

The unrest, which he had expressed in his letter to his 
sister, found expression in action when he accepted the 
call of the North Orange Baptist Church. He was or- 
dained to the Christian ministry on May 5, 1873 ; the or- 
dination sermon was preached by President Dodge, and 
the hand of fellowship was given by his half-brother, the 
E.ev. George Dana Boardman, D. D. 

Though Doctor Judson's official connection with the 
North Orange Baptist Church lasted but six years, in 
a real sense it became a life relationship. He was re- 
garded with the greatest affection and esteem by its 
members to the day of his death. He was accustomed 
to speak at the annual Children's Day Service at which the 
Sunday School made a gift of flowers to the children of 
the Memorial Church. He counted the North Orange 
people among his staunchest friends and supporters. 
Here is a distant echo of his influence, an extract from a 
44 




EDWARD JUD30N 

PASTOR OF NORTH ORANGE CHURCH 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 45 

letter from the son of a former member of the church, 
written at Redlands, California, in 191 1 : 

You must derive great comfort, Doctor Judson, from the 
knowledge that there are so many persons scattered over the 
country, who bless you for the help you have been to them 
spiritually. And then think of the many who have gone 
before who w T ere led into the kingdom by you ! Among them is 
my dear father. He loved you. He was never quite reconciled to 
your giving up the North Orange Church pastorate. 

Those who succeeded him in the North Orange pas- 
torate testify to his abiding influence. Dr. William M. 
Lawrence, a lifelong friend, says : 

As one of those who succeeded him in the pastorate at North 
Orange Church I had occasion to have this impressed on me 
constantly. Let it be remembered that more than a score 
of years passed from the close of his pastorate to the begin- 
ning of mine, and yet he was as influential, as much beloved, 
and his sen-ices were as much sought after as if I had been 
his immediate successor. 

Dr. Arthur T. Fowler, now pastor of the church, pays 
this tribute : 

Thirty years ago he gave up the pastorate of this church and 
closed a most fruitful ministry, to take up his memorable work 
in New York City. Through all this period his influence has 
been felt, and he has been held in the highest esteem. His 
work has been followed with prayers and increasing influence. 
What impressed me was the union, the rich noble blending, 
in his personality and hopes of exceedingly diverse — in some 
lines opposing — qualities and forces. "All things in him con- 
sist, hold together," said Saint Paul of our Lord. 

After a few delightful years in one of the finest resi- 
dence communities in America, Edward Judson had to 
face his third great life decision; this decision led him 
to surrender his congenial surroundings, his ample liv- 
ing, and his cherished habits of study to devote himself 
to a missionary task that had none of the romantic glamor 



46 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

of missionary service in Asia or Africa, nor indeed the 
recognition accorded to pioneer ministers in the great 
West. The decision was the more difficult, as it involved 
the forced surrender of social and cultural advantages 
by his wife and daughters. As we shall see in a fol- 
lowing chapter, the city mission field was one that was 
neglected, and to it few strong men had given themselves. 
He chose to relate himself to a struggling down-town 
church in an obscure locality with nothing to commend 
it but its opportunity for usefulness. 

There could be no question that the Berean Church 
had called him to lead, and he could serve no church 
where he was not recognized leader. Its full commit- 
ment to him is reflected by the call of the church : 

New York City, July 6, 1881. 
Dear Brother Judson: We enclose to you the action o£ 
the Berean Baptist Church, at a special meeting held this 
date. The proceedings were, first the reception and adoption 
of the report of the pulpit committee. Then upon the suggestion 
of the chairman, it was decided, upon motion, to proceed at 
once to give Brother Edward Judson a call to become pastor 
of our church. And I am happy to state that the result was a 
unanimous request, and we hope that you feel disposed to accept 
the call. In reference to any changes you deem best to make, 
the church by resolution agreed to comply with any reasonable 
request, and also to sympathize and cooperate with you in 
your labors. In our present reduced condition we were only 
able to secure the promise of one thousand dollars a year 
toward your support. Hoping soon to receive a favorable reply, 
we remain with much respect and esteem, your brethren in Christ. 
On behalf of the committee, 

J. A. Houghton, Secretary. 

His full commitment to the church was finely ex- 
pressed in a letter he wrote a few years later on his 
arrival in California after a trip abroad: 

During the long journey which I am making I have enjoyed 
so far most excellent health and have received many tokens of 



PASTOR AXD PREACHER 47 

divine grace. Up to this date I have preached only three times, 
so that I am having a good rest. I want you to feel that what- 
ever strength and information I may gather on this journey will 
be used on behalf of you, my dear people, to whose precious 
welfare I have devoted myself body and soul. 

His sacrificial act startled and amazed Christian lead- 
ers. They had been accustomed to see strong men con- 
tinue important work on the foreign field, but never had 
known a man who had attained eminence in an influential 
church voluntarily to surrender its leadership and to 
identify himself with a struggling mission interest in the 
city. This letter from an acquaintance in New Hamp- 
shire reflects the surprise of his friends : 

March 9, 1881. 

The " Examiner " came this afternoon, bearing a copy of your 
pastoral talk of last Sunday. Not having heard the slightest 
intimation of any purpose on your part to alter your ministerial 
relations in any particular, I need not say I was wholly unpre- 
pared for so utter a renunciation as you therein announce. My 
brother, this is the grandest self-sacrifice for the furtherance 
of the interests of God and man alike recorded in the annals 
of many, many years. It is not for me to question the wisdom 
of a purpose for which a servant and son of God is willing to 
give up so much. I stand amazed, filled with awe at this mag- 
nificent exhibition of apostolic zeal. The son of Adoniram 
Judson is worthy of his parentage. The call is mighty when 
the affluence of your present surroundings yields to it. 

Many years later in an ordination address, without 
referring in any way to his own experience, he said : 

It would be a reassuring sign of the times if the cases 
were not so scarce of ministers laying aside the responsibilities 
of the active pastorship in influential churches not in order 
to seek out some sheltered nook, but to identify themselves 
with forlorn causes, where the social currents would converge 
against them, and where their wisdom and experience and 
ample resources would count the most for the advancement of 
the kingdom of God, 



48 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

The larger significance of this decision to the social 
and religious life of New York City, and indirectly to 
the life of all American cities, will be considered in later 
chapters. It was as a social prophet and leader in mission 
work in the city that he made his great life contribu- 
tion to social and religious progress, yet as pastor and 
preacher he attained distinction and had wide influence. 

His high estimate of the pastor's office grew out of his 
conception of the place of the church in the kingdom of 
God, and particularly the place of the local church. He 
says: 

The Christian finds himself within the large embrace of three 
concentric horizons. The uttermost is the spiritual church, that 
vague and majestic conception which glimmers here and there 
in Holy Scripture, and reminds us that our souls, whether 
dwelling on this green earth or in any other world, who turn 
reverently and obediently toward what light they have, belong 
to one flock and have one shepherd. 

Again, there is a second religious horizon that environs us, 
less remote and more definite. Within the spiritual church we 
find ecclesiastical crystallizations with one or another of which 
each one of us has come somehow or other to be identified. 
We are Romanist, or Anglican, or Wesleyan, or Baptist, or 
Congregationalist, or Presbyterian. These several organisms 
are called denominations or communions, and sometimes in loose 
but popular phrase, but with slight, if any, vestige of Scripture 
warrant, churches. 

The local church latitudes our innermost ecclesiastical horizon ; 
it includes those believers who habitually meet together for 
worship. They form a society into which new members are 
initiated by baptism. It is their custom at stated seasons to take 
the bread and the chalice in memory of Christ. 

They remind each other of his teachings, and they praise and 
adore the eternal God as foreshortened and revealed to the 
human consciousness in his personality and character. In these 
ways they help each other to become like him. Nor is this all. 
They endeavor to change for the better the character of the 
circumjacent community, which they call the world, by bring- 
ing into the consciousness of individuals those great truths con- 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 49 

cerning God, and duty, and the future life, which Christ taught 
and exemplified. This they accomplish by preaching, by private 
conversation, by the symbolism of the sacraments, and especially 
by their blameless and disinterested behavior, which reflects 
the image of their Master as the rising sun is mirrored on the 
glossy surface of a mountain lake. 

In his address as president of the American Baptist 
Missionary Union, now the American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May, 
1887, Edward Judson said: 

Christ organized a church. He was not an abstract thinker. 
This work of organization is hard work. It is one thing to 
dream and another thing to realize. Themistocles said, " I can- 
not fiddle, but I can make a small town grow into a great city." 
Christ was a builder. He meant that his church should contain 
the potency of all reform. Christ wrote no books. He organized 
a society. My brethren, if you would do something worth con- 
tinuing, then work along the line of the local church. Work 
this for all it is worth: and when you die, you will leave some- 
thing that shall be a worthy residuum. I have about made up my 
mind to be connected with no other societies. They draw off 
the water in the stream before it comes to the mill. They absorb 
energies which ought to flow through the local churches. 

His conception of the central place of the church was 
fundamental. This is clearly stated in his " Institutional 
Church." Again he said: 

We ourselves belong to a social age. Almost every man 
whom you meet wears some kind of badge. In spite, however, 
of this strong social trend, the community as a whole does 
not become more compact and stable. The exclusive societies 
and clubs into which the rich are gathered only intensify caste 
prejudice and antipathy. So that the social instinct which seemed 
to have within it the promise of cohesion tends ultimately 
to disintegration. Society is seamed with crevasses, which only 
widen as individuals come into closer social contact. It would 
almost seem as though the church were the only society in which 
human units can cohere on a common plane — rich and poor. 



50 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

prince and pauper, the learned and the illiterate. All races and 
nationalities meet together on a common ground, share in the 
same aspirations, struggles, and hopes. This was the glory and 
miracle of the primitive church, that at a time when race an- 
tipathy compared with ours was as sunlight unto moonlight, the 
middle wall of partition was broken down, and Jew and Greek 
shared in the common eucharistic meal. 

His emphasis on the church as such, his conception 
of the church as a divine institution, superseding and 
overtowering all other religious and social institutions, 
his attachment to a formal, stately order of service, lead 
some to call him a " High-churchman " ; but he was far 
from a " High-churchman " ; to him the church was a 
very simple and natural organization. In the ordina- 
tion address, entitled " Holy Order," he gave this ex- 
position of the functions of the church and the office 
of the pastor : 

Or it may be an aged holy woman sitting in the chimney-corner 
with her Bible on her knee; or some venerable deacon perhaps 
grieving for the affliction of Joseph, like the saints in the days 
of Amos; or even some little child like Samuel, whose young 
heart was concerned for the tabernacle, where the ark of God was, 
and whose ear Jehovah uncovered in those gloomy days when 
the word of Jehovah was precious, as there was no frequent 
vision. Heaven has not seen fit to set apart and to ordain cer- 
tain men as organ-pipes through which, however foul and dusty, 
it exclusively transmits the grand and solemn music of its 
oracles. Not the laying on of hands makes the minister, but 
his own feeling of concern ; as the lookout in the crow's-nest of 
some great Atlantic steamship at night searches the dim horizon 
for the lights of a distant vessel, the phantom iceberg, or some 
dark, low-lying derelict, while the passengers take their ease 
below the decks. The human mind could not devise a more 
effective way to retard the growth of Christianity than the 
promotion of the universal persuasion that the grace of God 
can find its way to the hearts of men solely through the chan- 
nels of a select few. The universal priesthood of believers is 
the cardinal doctrine of the modern church. Every true Christian 
is a minister, or on the way to become one. Every child of 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 5 1 

God should aspire to be graduated out of tutelage into the 
mature life of service. As in military hospitals convalescents 
become nurses, so in the religious life the saved become saviors, 
and in saving, are saved. 

That he believed in the essential democracy of the 
Christian church is evidenced by these words, and yet 
he had a profound belief in the sacredness and the 
effectiveness of the work of the pastor. His conception 
of the high office of pastor was reflected in his writing, 
in his thorough sermon preparation, and in his work 
generally. During the period when he was comparatively 
free from the burden of the church debt, and could 
devote himself with his full energy to his own church, 
he defined the relation of the pastor to the Sunday 
School : 

As pastor, I try to be present as regularly at the Sunday 
School as at any other church service on Sunday. With us 
the church and congregation meet together on Sunday morning 
for ivorship. This consists of the Lord's Supper, prayer, praise, 
and the unfolding of Scripture by the pastor. The church and 
congregation meet together on Sunday afternoon for study. 
The Bible is the text-book. The pastor, instead of unfolding 
a passage for the people en masse, as in the morning, instructs 
the people through teachers whom he has met beforehand, and 
whom he has taught both the lesson and how to teach it. The 
church and congregation meet together on Sunday evening 
for work, especially as regards the outside world. Each mem- 
ber of the church is expected to attend regularly at least two 
of these three great services. 

I have almost come to think that in some cases the Sunday 
School is more truly and primitively the church than the church 
itself. The people come together to sing, and pray, and study 
the Bible under the instruction of unpaid teachers, the more 
intelligent and spiritual of their number, and in this way they 
reproduce almost exactly the apostolic ecclesia. 

The superintendent attends to the details of organization, while 
the pastor performs the function of teaching through the teachers. 
The two offices cannot clash. My own rule is to hold a teachers' 
meeting Thursday night, and to conduct the closing exercises of 



52 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

the school, giving the children a sermonet of five minutes on 
the lesson. Out of the study of the lesson there usually comes 
a sermon for Sunday night. 

Thus he exalted the teaching function of the pastor. 
At the morning service he would teach the saints, in 
the afternoon the young, and in the evening the un- 
converted. As a preacher he was preeminently a teacher. 

In his conception of the pastoral office large place was 
given to persuasion, to what is commonly called evan- 
gelistic appeal. It is not frequent that one essentially 
a teacher becomes an effective evangelist. Speaking of 
Doctor Judson's experience in North Orange, Dr. R. T. 
Middleditch said : " Revivals of great power were en- 
joyed. Several hundred were received into church- 
membership." The evangelistic note was prominent in 
his Berean Church ministry and in that of the Memorial 
Church — the name assumed by the church when it moved 
into the Judson Memorial on Washington Square. To 
the end of his ministry he laid strong emphasis upon 
the work of the evangelist. 

This evangelistic ministry was sufficiently extended 
to have a vital relation to the development of the de- 
nomination, both in the quickening of the individual 
churches and in the conversion of strong men and women. 
In February, 1914, after Doctor Judson had given a lec- 
ture in Dr. Russell H. Conwell's church in Philadelphia, 
Doctor Conwell's associate, Rev. !$. E. Harris, wrote : 

I think it is exactly twenty-five years ago this very week, is 
it not, that you preached a series of revival services at the Olivet 
Church? The Lord distinctly called me into the ministry through 
your preaching. You did not know how far that work extended 
on that awfully cold night in 1889. 

Few men have had such large opportunities for per- 
sonal influence as he. This influence was exerted often 
quite unconsciously, at other times by definite and pains- 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 53 

taking service. Several letters have been received from 
widely scattered points, testifying to the strong im- 
pression which he made at a casual meeting. If it is true, 
as Emerson says, that to meet a man on the street is 
to make a mark upon him, so sensitive is one life to an- 
other, a train of inspiring influences was left by Doctor 
Judson in his contact with thousands. One testifies that 
his wife had learned to rely upon the inspiration she 
received from birthday letters year after year. Mrs. 
James M. Bruce gives this pathetic but inspiring inci- 
dent. The funeral service of Edward Judson had been 
over but a few hours when the regular Sunday-evening 
service was held in the Memorial Church. At the close, 
a poorly clad, lonely young woman asked for the pastor, 
whom she had heard preach only the preceding Sunday. 
She was told that he had passed away the Friday before. 
She burst into tears and said, " I thought I had found a 
friend/' 

Doctor Judson was a charming and persuasive letter- 
writer. Many letters were written in his own hand, but 
many also by Mrs. Judson, who was his most faithful and 
gracious amanuensis. Many troubled individuals who 
had never known him personally, wrote for spiritual guid- 
ance. In reply to an inquiry, regarding the mooted ques- 
tion of amusements, that he had received from a young 
teacher in Texas, he wrote a long letter with the greatest 
care. Among other things he said : 

Perhaps it is just as well that I have postponed the answer, 
for indeed one of the first principles taught in the New Testa- 
ment is that in these questions of casuistry we are not to depend 
upon others for an answer, but to train our conscience by keeping 
it in constant use, as a hunter's eyesight grows keen through the 
sustained effort to perceive small game in the thick woods. The 
priestly way of deciding such questions one for another causes 
the moral vision of the one who seeks counsel to be impaired 
through disuse and weak dependence upon those who we think 



54 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

are of keener sight than ourselves. This then is the first prin- 
ciple, namely, that we decide for ourselves. 

The second condition of clear vision is a surrendered will ; 
that is, an absolute willingness to take either one of the alter- 
native courses that seems more right. " Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." Our self-will, like breath, makes 
a little film on the window-pane so that we cannot see clearly 
the vision of beauty that lies beyond. 

The third principle is that we are not to take any course until 
all misgiving concerning it is cleared up. 

In the fourth place, there comes in the principle of distinctive 
Christian love. This is something which is almost unknown 
among worldlings, and enables a person to give up with a smile 
the most congenial helpful recreation, if by so doing we may 
save those from engaging in it to whom it would be a sin. This 
principle may easily be overworked by an enthusiastic Christian, 
the weaker brother being put upon a kind of throne from whence 
he dominates his fellow Christians. 

There is no " Thus saith the Lord " that I know of concerning 
these things that are not wrong per se, but Paul's teachings 
are illumined by general principles of which we may make use, 
and so following the Word and guided by the Spirit, our 
inmost purpose being to obey, we shall not go far wrong with- 
out priestly control exercised over us by those who have gone 
before us, of those to whom we instinctively look as spiritual 
fathers. 

This may be taken as typical of the thoughtful considera- 
tion shown to those who sought his spiritual guidance, 
though they had no claim upon him. 

His fine instincts, his urbanity, his wide training and 
scholarship, and his marked pulpit ability made him a 
most acceptable college preacher. He was sought by 
institutions like Chicago, Cornell, Brown, Vassar, and 
Wellesley ; and by Union and Rochester Seminaries. Few 
men touched the extremes of social and intellectual life 
more than he. He had that clarity of thought, simplicity 
of utterance, breadth of sympathy, and deep spiritual dis- 
cernment which permitted him to minister to the high and 
to the low, to the lettered and to the unlettered. He 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 55 

touched that common human element to be found in 
men of every class and of every condition. In an address 
he once said : 

Few of us have Joseph's quick perception of sorrow, who 
looking into the haggard faces of his two fellow prisoners, the 
butler and baker, asked the sympathetic question, " Wherefore 
look ye so sadly to-day." 

He had that quick sensitiveness and could aptly express 
his feeling. 

Sought by many educational institutions, he was equally 
in demand by churches. There is probably no church in 
the denomination that would not have welcomed him as 
its pastor. While he seldom referred to these calls, and 
never I believe, in his church, there are to be found in 
his files letters from representatives of such churches 
as the First Baptist Church of Rochester (1884), from 
the Eutaw Place Church of Baltimore (1895), and from 
the First Church of Providence (1907). 

From Providence, his friend Professor Poland wrote, 
" You were my first choice, but you would not come." 
This earnest letter was received in 1895 from Baltimore: 

A year ago, when Doctor Ellis left us, the one thought of the 
committee of eleven brethren, to whom the duty of recommend- 
ing his successor was confided, was that Dr. Edward Judson must 
be secured if possible. You could not then see how the leader- 
ship of your great work in New York could be confided to 
other workers. A year of earnest prayerful looking for another 
minister upon whom conviction and unanimous choice might 
unite has been unavailing. 

'A well-known layman of the same church wrote : 

Of course your letters previously received had left us no 
room for any change, but at the same time we did not feel 
that we could accept this without making one more effort. And 
now that this has failed us, we are forced to accept your 
decision for the present at least, though it brings to us the 
greatest possible disappointment and regret. 
E 



56 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

This letter makes it quite clear that while churches 
reiterated their appeal to him, they did so clearly under- 
standing his attitude. It was almost at the beginning 
of his ministry in New York, when he had limited sup- 
port for himself and for his work, housed in cramped 
quarters, that this urgent invitation came from Rich- 
mond, Virginia: 

Not only would our church and city give you a cordial wel- 
come, but the Baptists of the entire South would rejoice to 
have you in this position. Your influence for good would 
extend throughout our entire brotherhood North and South. No 
field in the South presents such an opportunity of usefulness 
as this. 

The writer is advised that just after Doctor Judson be- 
came pastor of the Berean Church at a salary inade- 
quate for his needs, he was called to a strong church in 
Albany. In spite of these frequent and persistent calls he 
was not tempted to surrender what he deemed his 
great life-task, though its rigors overtaxed his endurance 
and finally cut into his very life. He appreciated his 
unanimous election by the Executive Committee of the 
Northern Baptist Convention to preach the Convention 
Sermon in Boston in 1914 at the Judson Centennial and 
the hundredth anniversary celebration of the founding 
of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. It 
was a deep disappointment to him that he was physically 
unable to accept the appointment. 

One may well shrink from attempting to characterize 
the work of a genius. Such was Doctor Judson as a 
preacher. His own defense of preaching gives some hint 
of the task which he had set for himself. In discussing 
the striking theme, " The Unnecessariness of Preaching," 
he said: 

Whether there is any real value in the objection which these 
words contain to one of the usual methods of evangelistic work 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 57 

depends on the definition given to the word preaching. If 
it means a set form of religious discourse, then the objection 
is, in many circumstances, a valid one. But if it means a 
simple conversational style of conveying gospel truth, as one 
friend would talk to another, making statements that he desires 
to enforce and illustrate in an unconventional way, then such 
preaching cannot be dispensed with in making known the mes- 
sage of salvation. 

He decried anything of a sensational character in the 
pulpit. In writing to a friend he referred to " the fatal 
undertow in sensational preaching." He would not 
cheapen his art to catch a crowd. An unprejudiced ob- 
server with critical but kindly intent may give truer 
estimate of him than one who saw him at too close range 
to get a perspective and knew him too warmly to be 
dispassionate. " The Watchman," of July 4, 1901, quotes 
this statement from the " New York Sun " : 

He has unmistakable earnestness, but he has also the same 
manner about it that he would have if he were entertaining 
you at his own dinner-table. He goes at it with the accent of 
a gracious host who has an engaging story to tell, and in a 
minute or so his eyes are twinkling and his face has a broad 
infectious smile at some human turn he is giving his remarks. 
There is no loss of dignity in this habit, but it affects people 
differently; I suppose everybody is warmed by an honest smile, 
but the churl doesn't think to smile back. 

Then the narrative, of which a large portion of the sermon is 
made up, is for the most part pure literature. A limpid, Anglo- 
Saxon style of simple words it is, with color adroitly produced 
not by troops of adjectives, but by nouns and verbs that are 
single metaphors in themselves. This is the last degree of 
imagination in style ; it shows a mind that sees its own thoughts 
as pictures, and that sees facts in perspective. Thus, speaking 
of the talk of the stranger on the road to Emmaus, which was 
his subject, he said, "The story ran on in ups and downs." 
After illustration of this statement by quotations of the exulta- 
tion and depression of feeling, that " story of ups and downs " 
was a phrase that pinned itself in the mind. 

A few graphic phrases are not remarkable, and, on the other 



58 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

hand, an unrestraint of picture nouns and verbs would easily 
become slush. But Judson is an artist; he doesn't slip into 
kept words; he knows the difference between unmuzzled fancy 
and a sane imagination; his own disciplined imagination is in- 
exhaustible in its accurate words. 

This is not great thinking; I don't know that it is thinking 
at all. But it marks a faculty that gets at the distinctions of 
laborious thought by a spring. It is a seeing true ; it is a seeing 
with all one's personality at once. If Judson were not a preacher 
he would be one of the authors to whom publishers pay pro- 
digious royalties. 

Nevertheless, in his own pulpit on Sunday it is evident that 
the long wear and disappointment have told on him. There he 
lacks some of the verve that he has in other pulpits. After 
last Sunday's services were over this observer experienced the 
impression that Judson was tired, not in body, but in spirit. 

Perhaps this impression is not quite right; if correct, it 
applies only to his sense of his own preaching, certainly not 
to the daily work of the Judson institution, for in announcing 
the week's program his voice had a different ring, as of a 
fathomless determination. 

We are fortunate in having this editorial by the " Mail 
and Express" of February 15, 1902, in a series of edi- 
torials on " City Pastors and Their Churches " : 

He at any rate cultivates the field well and zealously. I should 
call him a man of spiritual and sympathetic power rather than 
one of compelling will and influence. He is to me, as estimated 
from the view-point of the man in the Sunday pew, a man of 
singular attractiveness. His manner before his congregation — 
I cannot say in the pulpit, for he has no pulpit — is rather diffident. 
He does not preach from notes, and he has a pleasing and almost 
deferential, conversational way which convinces the hearer that 
the sermon is entirely extemporaneous — that it comes from the 
heart. Yet there is never any groping for an expression, and never 
any want of order and sequence in the matters presented. . . 

I do not mean that there was the slightest indication in Doctor 
Judson's discourse that he had failed to feel rewarded richly 
for his long and arduous labors in this city; but I am sure 
that he has by no means been well rewarded in the earthy sense, 
and that the full harvest from his sowing is yet to be reaped. 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 59 

Preaching for Edward Judson was not a stage perform- 
ance, not a literary feat, not an oratorical effort; it 
was the expression of personality — of soul — playing 
upon a brain well nourished by careful thought and en- 
riched by wide Christian experience, employing a well- 
disciplined, richly modulated voice, and a genial, compel- 
ling presence. He sought to win his audiences rather than 
to command them. His method was expository, his 
style conversational, but dignified, and even elegant. 
When his burdens, to which reference will be made in 
the following chapters, came to be crushing, the effects 
of the long wear and tear were evident. His experience 
suggests these lines from Matthew Arnold, often used 
by Doctor Judson: 

No, 'tis the gradual furnace of the world 
In whose hot air our spirits are upcurled 
Until they crumble, or else grow like steel, 
Which kills in us the bloom, the youth, the spring, 
Which leaves the fierce necessity to feel, 
But takes away the power. 

This evident depression toward the close of his life 
robbed his preaching, especially in his own pulpit, of some 
of its power though he never lost his charm of simplicity, 
his quiet earnestness, his " sweet reasonableness," his 
clarity of thought and purity of diction. He says, " A 
vote of thanks was given to Lord Macaulay for having 
written a history that the working man could under- 
stand." This tribute may be paid to his preaching. 

While his sermons were illumined with quaint humor, 
he never used what might be termed funny stories. This 
is characteristic : " It made you think of the good Samar- 
itan who, having become once involved in a procedure of 
kindness, found there was no end to it. I call that story 
the parable of the Holy And." There was much of 
pathos, occasionally a touch of pessimism, but usually an 



60 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

abounding faith and a deep spiritual tone, Doctor Judson 
did not often discuss social problems in his pulpit. He be- 
came a social force by action, and yet his voice was 
frequently heard upon social questions, as, for example, 
when he addressed a banquet of paper manufacturers in 
December, 1898. He discussed what he called The De- 
velopment of Civic Righteousness — its expression in so- 
cial compunction — the feeling, for example, that a man is 
responsible for the benevolent use of his wealth, that 
beyond the problem of acquisition is the more difficult 
problem of using wealth. 

While Doctor Judson's pulpit work was largely the ex- 
pression of his compelling personality, it always repre- 
sented the most thorough preparation. Although his ser- 
mons were left largely in fragmentary notes, some are 
preserved in manuscript form, and others found their 
way into print. Since he left no volume of sermons, and 
but an occasional sermon was ever printed, we shall quote 
certain extracts for their intrinsic value as well as to 
illustrate his pulpit power. 

On February 3, 1897, Doctor Judson preached in the 
Young Men's Christian Association Hall at Newton, 
Massachusetts. The sermon was stenographically re- 
ported. The extract which follows gives a fair presenta- 
tion of Doctor Judson's method in evangelistic appeal : 

I do not want to conceal it from you that a Christian life 
means checks and restraints. I do not want you to become a 
Christian on the ground that it is a life of large liberty. A 
Christian life means being hemmed in. To become a Christian 
is to reef in your personal preferences; it means to yield to 
wholesome restraint. . . 

The Christian life is a narrow way. It is not a wide boulevard. 
It is like walling in a narrow path where our steps are restricted. 
Keep in the path ! That is what it means to be a Christian. 

Now, a rifle-barrel encloses the force of the powder. You 
can touch off a little powder on the ground, and you will 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 6 1 

have a little explosion, light, and heat. So our lives, in order 
to realize much from them, must be compressed. You can never 
have success in any direction until your life is shut in. Just 
as a river does not have the same power when it meanders 
carelessly over the plain as when shut in between the walls of 
a sluice and its forces directed and controlled. 

I made up my mind that . . . the difference between civiliza- 
tion and savage life is just that the savage has his own way. 
It is a case of individualism gone to seed. Like Esau, he eats and 
drinks, and goes his way. Civilized man yields to pressure. 

I have not given the gospel yet. To tell human nature that 
it must submit to restraint and do things it does not want to do 
is all very good, but that is not the gospel. 

If you will yield to the pressure you will find by and by that 
the pressure is agreeable. By and by obedience will become 
second nature, and you will love to do those things that you 
do not want to do, and you will learn to love to do God's will, 
and Browning's lines will come true when we shall recognize 

" The ultimate angels' law, 
Indulging every instinct of the soul 
There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing! " 

We get by and by to taste the sweetness of this acquiescence 
in the divine will. 

And so we come to feel that these restraints are just our 
heavenly Father's arrangements, and we love to keep inside them 
and find happiness in yielding to the divine will. 

I have an idea that this sermon I have tried to preach to-night 

has its application right here; that if you could be persuaded 

into doing the thing you do not want to, because it is your duty, 

you might find the Saviour. I remember when I did it as a 

I lad of sixteen, I just stood up and said, " Pray for me." I had 

! always thought I would be a Christian sometime, but it was 

' hard to take the first step. 

In New York there was a minister who had a little boy, and 
the minister with the little boy was at home in one of those 
great houses. The mother was away, so that when the door- 
bell rang they both felt, "That is mother." So the minister 
said to his little boy, " Go and open the door for your mother." 
And the little boy went to the great oak door and turned the 
knob, but could not get the door open. So he called out to 



62 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

his mother, "Mamma, I have turned the knob, you push the 
door open." 

I have often thought of that, and likened it to the door of 
the heart. There is something that keeps the door from coming 
open. All you have to do is to remove that, and Christ will 
come in. 

The sermon, from which the following quotations are 
taken, reflects his own attitude of humility. He never 
paraded his acts of sacrifice or exhibited his own good 
works. 

Rank in the Kingdom of Heaven 

Take care, Peter! Service cannot be measured by bulk. Self- 
consciousness and that mercenary spirit of yours are the moths 
which fret to death the gorgeous tapestry of Christian service. 
No matter how much you do for me, self-consciousness and the 
mercenary spirit spoil it all. Many who are first here — of whom 
people say they have done great things and made great sacrifices — 
many such shall be last over there, because all they do is spoiled 
by the wrong spirit which they cherish. And many that are last 
here, of whom people say, " They have done nothing for me, and 
have sacrificed nothing," such people may be first over there; 
for though there was little to show in bulk either of service 
or sacrifice, yet there was the humble and unselfish spirit that 
made what they did of great price. . . 

The parable very plainly teaches that those who are first here 
may be the last there when the great account is made up. Per- 
haps there is some Christian here in this congregation, looking 
me right in the face, of whom everybody is saying : " Oh, what 
a worker he is ! How much he is giving up, and how much 
he is doing for Christ ! " And yet there may be in his conduct 
that subtle spirit of self-consciousness and selfishness which will 
spoil it all, and he may find himself way back among the last 
in heaven. . . 

Rank in the kingdom of heaven is determined, not by the bulk 
of the service rendered and sacrifice made, but by the animating 
spirit of the life. 

It is not those who think that they have attained to some 
high plane of moral excellence from which they can look down 
upon their fellow men, who have already done so ; but those who 
are the most conscious of their own imperfection. The ear of 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 63 

corn, when it is thin and green, stands straight up on the stalk; 
when it is filled out and browned with ripeness, it bends its 
head and hangs low down. 

This was his introduction to a sermon on City Mis- 
sions, announced as " The Romance of the Mustard- 
seed " : 

A man took a tiny mustard-seed between his thumb and finger. 
A member of the vegetable kingdom comes into contact with a 
member of the animal kingdom. The seed so small that he can 
scarcely see it — so small he can hardly feel it between the sen- 
sitive surface of his thumb and finger. "Ye have faith like a 
grain of mustard-seed." 

He took the seed between thumb and finger, chose a mellow 
spot in his garden where there was plenty of sunshine, and, 
disturbing the soil a little, he dropped in the mustard-seed 
and covered it up. And then a wonderful thing happened. The 
soil closed around the mustard-seed, just as you would hold a 
baby in your arms ; and being warmed by the sun and moistened 
by the dew and rain, the little mustard-seed began to swell, and 
at last cracked open, just as the little chicken breaks an egg-shell. 
Then there came out, not a chicken, but two things, a little 
blade, or plumule, and a little root, or radicle, that went down. 
The plumule and the radicle left the shell of the mustard-seed 
just as you would tumble out of your bed in the morning. 

The radicle went down into the earth, and it sent out little 
hairs, and they sucked in the moisture and air of the ground, 
and sent them up to the blade; and so the whole thing kept on 
growing until it became a tree. As big around as that (putting 
hands together) it shot out branches. A pair of birds came along, 
and they said, "What a place this would be for a nest! " and 
so they built their nest in the crotch of the tree, and they had 
a place to fly into when they were tired. They had protection 
against the hot sun and the driving rain, and they sang among 
the branches, making the mustard tree a musical conservator}'. 
I submit that this is quite a romance. 

Doctor Judson felt deeply, and he knew how to express 
those deeper feelings that the average man would hardly 
venture to describe. In a sermon at the Berean Church 
early in his ministry, on the theme " The Fruit of the 



64 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Vine," in describing the Last Supper of Jesus with his 
disciples, he said: : 

This is the last time we shall meet. De Quincy says: "It is 
just a remark of Doctor Johnson, and what cannot often be 
said of his remarks, a very feeling one, that we never perform an 
act consciously for the last time without sadness of heart." It 
was this sadness of heart that had possession of the breast of our 
Saviour. A poet describes the death of a man in a porch, and 
the man looks out and sees the setting sun, and there is a con- 
sciousness in his heart that this will be the last time. 

" How sad 
To watch the last low lingering light 
And know not when the morn may break." 

And so Tennyson describes the dying man's last experience of 
daybreak in the words: 

" Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds 
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; 
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more." 

One of the saddest experiences that we have in this world is 
that of oldness. We found that out in our childhood, when 
we got our toys all red and new and beautiful. How soon they 
became old and spoiled. Our school-books too; how soon they 
are worn out. So too, our clothes are continually getting worn 
out. All things that we have are continually getting old. We 
can enter here into sympathy with the question with which 
the blase worldling Solomon begins his great book of Eccle- 
siastes : " Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is 
new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us." 
So with our bodies. They are like a home, the beams of which 
are slowly crumbling away. All is growing old. But we are 
taught here that we shall pass into a world where there shall be a 
new earth. Where, instead of the oldness of our earthly life, 
there shall be the perennial freshness of a new life. We shall be 
in a strange world where things never grow old. Do you 
remember the prophet's words spoken far back there in Isaiah, 
" For, behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth" ? 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 65 

One of the sermons which the writer remembers with 
the greatest pleasure, and from which he has received 
the greatest profit, was entitled " The Crescendo Life/' 
from the text, " I will give him the morning star " : 

This is the promise of Christ to the poor disciples at Thyatira. 
Who shall prove faithful and shall overcome, I will give him 
the morning star. It does not, of course, mean that he will 
literally pluck a star from the sky and give it to those who 
prove faithful. We shall live a crescendo life. Everybody feels 
the charm of the crescendo. There should be no coming down- 
stairs as life advances. We all want life not to darken down, 
but to grow a little brighter all the time the longer we live. 
Some people have a morbid habit of dwelling on the happy 
days of childhood, as if their " golden age " were always behind 
them. We forget the troubles of our childhood, and recall only 
its pleasures. How much better Browning's robust optimism, 
" The best is yet to be." The normal life grows ever happier. 
What seems at first a regimen becomes at last a delight. As 
the ancient poet puts it: 

" I will run the way of thy commandments, 
When thou shalt enlarge my heart." 

The consciousness of the presence and love of the "Great 
Companion" is the secret of the crescendo life. Only as we 
relate ourselves vitally to him by faith and love do we become 
capable in any measure of realizing such aspirations as are 
voiced in Holmes' " Chambered Nautilus " : 

"Build thee more stately mansions, my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll! 
Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! " 

Christianity gives us the promise of a crescendo life. We 
begin small and low down. The ladder of true sainthood has 
its lowest rung placed in the gutter of humiliation. Self-denial 
comes at the beginning of the Christian life, and willing obedi- 
ence at the end. Only after long and sustained endeavor do 
we achieve 



66 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

" The ultimate angels' law, 
Indulging every instinct of the soul 
There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing! " 

We begin by being the servants of Christ, and end by hearing 
him calling us friends. The human spirit resembles a stagnant 
pool all overspread with the green scum of sin, in the center 
of which the Christian life bubbles up like a little spring that 
keeps at work till it clears away all impurity. According to 
the old Hebrew proverb, " The path of the just is as the shining 
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 

Certain central truths laid fast hold upon him. He 
preached again and again upon " Christian Tranquillity," 
more than once in his own pulpit, also in Rochester, in 
Boston, at Cornell, and elsewhere. He could press a 
whole sermon into a paragraph. This is the heart of his 
sermon on Christian Tranquillity : 

In the writings of Isaiah we have frequent allusions to the 
potter and his wheel, as in that familiar passage of exquisite 
beauty, a strophe from a post-exilic hymn: "Thou will keep 
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because 
he trusteth in thee ; " or as more exactly rendered : " The soul 
whom thou dost sustain, thou wilt mold into perfect peace; 
because he trusteth in thee." There is no word of Scripture 
more replete with Christian tranquillity. The believer is the 
formless lump of clay. Jehovah is the artist. The outcome is 
an exquisite vase, bearing the legend, Perfect Peace. 

But there are two conditions essential to this glorious result. 
The potter must sustain and fashion the lump of moist clay, 
and the clay must lie still and be soft and acquiescent to the 
potter's molding. Translated into prose, The experiences of 
life are God's way of bringing the soul that trusts in him 
into a sense of perfect security, into the possession of a tran- 
quil mind. 

Here is another sermon in a paragraph : 

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
me; or else believe me for the very works' sake," as if he 
would prefer to have us believe in him for his own sake with- 
out any miracles at all. As rude, perishable trestlework is 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 6/ 

ultimately replaced on a railroad by compact masonry, so the 
faith of the gospel which rested once upon miracle, now rests 
upon the world's personal experience of Christ's power to save 
the state, the family, and the individual. And while the evi- 
dence from miracle weakens with time, the evidence from 
experience accumulates force through the years. 

His sermons were abundantly illustrated by literary gems, 
chiefly from the great poets, which he quoted from 
memory and with deep feeling. In speaking of the 
vague sense of danger which seems to oppress animal 
existence, he says Faust's complaint is true to human life : 

Care at the bottom of the heart is lurking: 

Her secret pangs in silence working, 

She, restless, rocks herself, disturbing joy and rest: 

In newer masks her face is drest, 

By turns as house and land, as wife and child, presented — 

As water, fire, as poison, steel, 

And what we never lose is yet by us lamented ! 

The incarnation was essential to his thought. We find it 
clearly stated in his lecture on Matthew Arnold, in this 
short paragraph : 

The Scriptures reflect into our consciousness as from a 
mirror the radiant personality of Jesus, who is the heavenly 
Father unveiled. Outside of Christ we have only vague notions 
of God. In Christ he is definite, personal, sympathetic, near at 
hand. We feel his pity and love. We speak to him as a 
child to its mother. I find prayer most satisfying when it is 
addressed directly to Christ, who is all of God that, in humanity, 
we can comprehend. 

PULPIT PRAYER 

" It is a heavenly gift to be able to lead the prayer 
of our fellow believers, calling home their wandering 
thoughts, and fixing their loving and reverent regard on 
God as revealed to us in Christ." He had a keen appre- 
ciation of his gift, but also of the obligations involved. 
He gave careful thought to his prayers in public worship. 
He said: 



6& EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

There are two inexhaustible storehouses of materials for public 
prayer. They are humanity and holy Scripture. If we maintain 
a sympathetic attitude toward our fellow mortals and keep 
our minds informed regarding their varied needs, we shall 
never weary of interceding for them to our Father in heaven. 
Take, for instance, what is called the " long prayer " on Sunday 
morning. It should consist, so we are told, of adoration, thanks- 
giving, confession, and intercession. In adoration, we form a 
vivid conception of the Being to whom we pray. In thanks- 
giving, we express our gratitude for his mercies. In confession, 
we tell him how sorry we are for our sins. When we come to 
the intercession, there opens a boundless vista. 

In his public prayer he radiated the spirit of devotion, 
and was accustomed to express in chaste language and 
with the finest delicacy the deeper human aspirations. 
But few of these prayers have been preserved. 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father: For these provisions of 
thy bounty and for the goodly fellowship of this hour we thank 
thee. For this great bountiful earth upon the surface of which 
we live we thank thee. For its luxurious vegetation, its vast 
material resources, its glorious animal life, we thank thee. For 
its forests, lakes, and streams, for its oceans and glaciers and 
mountains, for its meadows and orchards and gardens we thank 
thee. We love this spacious home which thou hast given us, 
especially its wilder and more rugged aspects. We thank thee 
for thy protection and deliverance in past dangers, and for 
the bright hopes thou givest us for future adventures, dis- 
coveries, and conquests. May we dwell in the consciousness of 
thine existence, presence, and changeless regard. May we be 
faithful to observe trusts. May we give ourselves to the service 
of humanity, being especially regardful of those of our fellow 
creatures that are in want or in pain. Grant us in health and 
prosperity long to live and finally after this life an abundant 
entrance into thy heavenly kingdom, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

This was his prayer at the formal opening of the Bart- 
lett Gymnasium at the University of Chicago: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who hast taught us by 
thy holy apostle, Saint Paul, to present our bodies a living 



PASTOR AND PREACHER 69 

sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto thee, which is our reasonable ser- 
vice, we pray that our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accord- 
ing to the riches of thy grace, enable us to account our body 
as a temple of the Holy Spirit, remembering that we are not our 
own, but we are bought with a price, and that we should glorify 
God in our body. Be pleased to accept at our hands this house, 
which we do hereby consecrate to the glory of God and to the 
symmetrical development of the bodies which thou hast given 
us, wherewith to serve thee. We bless thee for the life of thy 
young servant, whose name this house bears, and whose memory 
is enshrined within its walls. We give thee hearty thanks for 
the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished 
their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. " We feebly 
struggle, they in glory shine. Yet all are one in thee, for all 
are thine." May we walk in their steps, and, through thine 
infinite compassion, be joined to them at the last, entering into 
their eternal felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom 
with thee and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, world 
without end. Amen. 

His benedictions were in themselves sermons, impressive 
of his gentleness and sweetness of spirit and warmth of 
devotion. 

This was his benediction at the Judson Centennial at 
Boston : 

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and by thy 
great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night, 
for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your 
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be amongst you and 
remain with you always. Amen. 



IV 

AUTHOR 

For after all, God thinks more of a man than he does of his 
work. A man's work may be burned, but the man himself 
shall be saved as by fire. We are all the time thinking of what 
we are doing to our work; God is thinking of what our work 
is doing to us. — Edward Judson. 

EACH age must act for itself, but it must think other 
men's thoughts after them if it would conserve its 
social heritage which is richer than nature's deposits of 
gold and silver, and more potent than nature's force of 
electricity. Human progress from generation to genera- 
tion is possible only by conserving and appropriating the 
thought of the past which meets the test of experience. It 
is the purpose of this chapter to preserve some of the 
most valuable of Edward Judson's writings. 

He wrote but two books, " The Life of Adoniram Jud- 
son " and " The Institutional Church " ; the former was 
published by the American Baptist Publication Society, 
and the latter by Lentilhon and Company. He edited, 
with C. S. Robinson, D. D., the" New Laudes Domini," 
one of the finest hymn-books, published by the Cen- 
tury Company. He published also an abridged edition of 
the life of his father. A few years before his death 
he told the writer that it was his hope to retire to Hamil- 
ton before the end should come, to rewrite his " Insti- 
tutional Church " and to write a book on homiletics. It 
is unfortunate that this purpose was not fulfilled. 

Edward Judson's first literary production was the 
biography of his father, published in 1883. Because of 
its delightful personal touch in expression of deserved 
70 



AUTHOR 71 

appreciation, we quote the following personal letter of 
March 7, 1883, from George Dana Boardman, Edward 
Judson's half-brother : 

My dear Brother Edward: Receive our warmest thanks for. 
" The Life of Adoniram Judson by his son Edward Judson." 

Trying to guard myself against any preconception in its favor 
which might rise from personal considerations, I have sought 
to read it as though I had never heard of the author nor had 
information with the subject. Let me then say that I have read 
the book with intense interest. It is straightforward, compact, 
clear, vivid, inspiring, uplifting. It is so full of noble things that 
I want half a day to talk with you about them. . . 

This work is historically accurate, pleasing in its ar- 
rangement, discerning in the materials used, and finely 
expresses a son's affection. It gives a fair statement of 
his father's achievements with something of their his- 
toric results. However, as a literary production it does 
not compare in style and finish with his writings of later 
years. 

Doctor Judson's greatest literary effort was his "In- 
stitutional Church," published in 1899. We quote again 
from Doctor Boardman: 

The copy of "The Institutional Church," which you kindly 
sent us, has just come to hand. I have read it with zest, and 
I trust with personal profit. Your book, small as it is, outweighs 
tons of theoretical tomes. It is clear in conception and state- 
ment; comprehensive in sweep; definite in details; sympathetic 
in range; steady in its hand, but adjustable in its fingers; up- 
lifting in its force and direction; Christlike in its spirit and 
tendency. I am sure that it will do immeasurable good among 
all denominations and in all lands. 

The late Dr. W. R. Huntington, for many years the 

eminent rector of Grace Episcopal Church, New York 

City, wrote: 

February 26, 1900. 

Dear Doctor Judson: The other night I had occasion to 

address the XIX Century Club on the subject of the " Institu- 

F 



72 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

tional Church." Your little book, which I read in connection 
with my preparation for the speech, struck me as so admirable 
that I cannot forbear expressing my obligation to the author. 
I read your definition of the institutional church to the audience 
as a starter for the discussion. 

While the book was written to interpret the spirit and 
work of the institutional church, it is a splendid treatise 
on the mission of the church, and gives an especially 
clear analysis of the minister's task. Dr. William M. 
Lawrence says that in the preparation of his lectures on 
homiletics he has found Doctor Judson's " Institutional 
Church " more helpful than any other book. 

While written for a practical purpose and serving that 
purpose admirably, the work has rare literary value. It 
is as artistic in its construction and choice in its diction 
as the most carefully written essay. It will be prized as 
a classic statement of the older conception of the insti- 
tutional church. As much attention will be given in the 
two succeeding chapters to the subject discussed by this 
book, we shall not here make extended references to it. 

" The Church in Its Social Aspect " was the subject 
of a monograph reprinted from the " Annals of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Science " for 
November, 1907. In a personal note to Doctor Judson, 
Bishop Henry C. Potter paid his tribute to this careful 
piece of work: 

My dear Doctor Judson: Accept my sincere thanks for your 
"The Church in Its Social Aspect." It is altogether admirable 
for its truth, its frankness, and its timeliness. May God con- 
tinue abundantly to bless your work. 

Affectionately yours, 

Henry C. Potter. 

He used to practical ends his literary genius. His 
descriptions of down-town church conditions are as finely 
phrased as they are accurate (see Chapter V), such as : 



AUTHOR 73 

If the rich and the poor are ever to meet together it must be 
in the poor man's territory; for money and locomotion are 
correlative terms. . . Down-town churches succumb to a slow 
process of decay, just as in some northern lake the construction 
of a dam causes the water to rise and to submerge the roots 
of the trees that fringe the shores, so that, lifeless and despoiled 
of their verdure, they stand there like pale, gaunt skeletons. This 
mark of decay creeps slowly up the island (Manhattan) as 
dropsy beginning at the feet climbs up until it floods the vitals. 

This gem on unconscious achievement was printed in 
his church calendar : 

Greatness is achieved not by direct and eager chase, but while 
we are looking for something else. It is the little things we get 
by hot endeavor. The great things come to us, as it were 
around a corner. We never become beautiful, or eloquent, or 
popular, or happy, or intellectual, or even good, by hard labor. 
Whatever we get of such things will come to us when we are 
most self-forgetful, and most absorbed in the service of our 
kind, and not when we are living the life of Byron as described 
by William Watson : 

" Too avid of earth's bliss, he was of those 
Whom delight flies because they give her chase. 
Only the odor of her wild hair blows 
Back in their faces hungering for her face." 

In the introduction which he wrote to " The Redemp- 
tion of the City," by Charles Hatch Sears, he made this 
discerning statement on the advent of the foreigner into 
our American cities : 

Instead of regarding the foreigner as the last straw that 
breaks the camel's back, we are coming to see that he may prove 
the very salvation of our churches. The presence of leguminous 
plants, beans for instance, growing in the midst of tall standing 
corn, strikes us at first as being an intrusion. We resent the 
dense jungle of verdure that seems to obstruct the growth 
of the corn and unduly to exhaust the soil. But upon further 
consideration we learn that these plants, which at first seem to 
us a menace, enrich the soil by their presence, since they are all 
the time drawing the free nitrogen out of the air and storing 



74 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

it away in the nodules at their roots underground, so that a 
given area will produce twenty per cent more crop with less 
exhaustion to the soil than would have been occasioned by the 
ordinary yield. The coming of the foreigner may prove to be 
the secret of the renewal of our worn-out ecclesiastical soils in 
the lower sections of our great cities. 

This letter to Dr. Howard Duffield, pastor of the Old 
First Presbyterian Church, is typical of his sympathy 
and understanding, and illustrates his pure diction: 

My dear Dr. Duffield : I deeply regret that I am unavoidably 
prevented from coming to you this afternoon. I want to con- 
gratulate you on the completion of ten years of honest, faithful 
service in New York. Your presence has been felt in this part 
of the city like a healing touch. Under the hydraulic pressure 
of difficulty incident to work in a down-town field you have 
kept sweet and brave. You have been brotherly to the rest of 
us who have shared with you the task of making New York 
better through the diffusion of the gospel of Christ in this 
neighborhood. Your church and mine are little more than a 
stone's throw apart, but there have been no stones thrown be- 
tween us. We have dwelt together in unity. You have shunned 
sensational methods and that success which is the child of bad 
qualities. I am twice as old as you are as regards living in 
New York, having been here over twenty years to your ten; 
and, if I may judge from my own residence in this community, 
you will find your second decade happier and sunnier than the 
first. This is my fervent wish and prayer. The blessing of God 
Almighty remain with you and the " Old First " always. I remain, 

December 8, 1901. Yours with warmest esteem. 

To a much-esteemed member of his church upon her 
application for a church letter, he wrote : 

My dear Friend: Oh, no! I have not forgotten you, and all 
your kindness to me, and sympathy with our work, and fidelity 
to the church here in lower New York, where we have to struggle 
even to exist. And I was very glad to hear from you and about 
you, for I miss you to this day. . . Remembering gratefully the 
old days when you were with us, and thanking you for your 



AUTHOR 75 

letter, and praying that you may be ever kept by our kind 
heavenly Father in his perfect safety and peace, I remain, 

Your affectionate friend and former pastor. 

This letter is prized by one of his associates: 

Mrs. Judson and I unite in sending you our heartfelt congratu- 
lations on the safe arrival of and rejoice that she and her 

mother are doing well. The enrichment of life through the birth 
of a little child is about the most signal blessing that can come 
into a home, and we thank the Father for this gift which he 
has bestowed upon you two, whom we have so long known 
and esteemed that we feel that we can enter with full sympathy 
into your joy. 

To a friend he wrote: 

I take the greater pleasure in sending you this information, be- 
cause you have always been such a help and comfort to me in 
my efforts to build in lower New York, among the homes of 
the poor, a church edifice that shall not only preserve in beautified 
and permanent form the unspeakably precious memories of our 
early missionary history, but will contribute to the solution of 
the difficult and pressing problem of the city evangelization. I 
remain yours with warmest, gratitude and esteem. 

He did not often write a sharp letter, but he knew how 
to administer a deserved rebuke : 

I do not think the cause of truth is helped by our putting 
into circulation general impressions which may do injustice to 
our sincere fellow believers. I am reminded of George Eliot's 
allusion to the fatal gift of generalization which gives man so 
great a superiority in mistake over the dumb animals. 

He was especially apt in epigrams. He could compress 
much wisdom into a little space. 'For example : 

The highest egoism and the purest altruism are identical. 
Selfishness spoils the fairest endeavor. 
Success resides in longevity and good behavior. 
Character is the parent of comfort. 



j6 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

There is no foundation of character but the Christian religion. 

Such long residence subjects the character to a severe test. 
What we are, is sure to transpire. People find us out. If we 
are bad we had better move often. 

A lie has too long legs altogether for a man to spend any time 
to catch up with it. 

I always like to be in good company evenings. Almost any- 
body can be good forenoons, but when the afternoon has worn 
away, and night comes with its temptations and dangers, I always 
seek the company of people who are better than I. 

The body nailed to the cross was a healthy body. 

The stuff that we handle in New York is indeed very stiff 
to the touch. 

It is only in the slow acid of time that the hard crystals of 
difficulty can be dissolved. 

As Carlyle has it, "He burned his own smoke." He did not 
blow it into the nostrils of others. The man in the street feels 
the force of Goethe's remark, " I will take any man's convictions, 
but pray keep your doubts to yourself, I have enough of my own." 

It is with age as with poverty, the first pinch is the sharpest. 
Victor Hugo said that he was a great deal older at fifty than 
at sixty; for fifty is the age of youth, sixty is the youth of age. 

These striking sentences are taken from his contribu- 
tion to the biography of Dr. William N. Clarke, and 
quoted through the courtesy of the author, Mrs. William 
N. Clarke: 

Doctor Clarke's character gave a carrying quality to his doc- 
trine. 

The best Christians in the churches are those who do not 
know it. 

He was like a tree that bears fruit, not by trying, but because 
it has so much life that it does not know what to do with it, 
and so turns it into fruit. 

He knew the secret of kindling into fruitage the minds of 
others. He was a good listener. You never found in him the 
glazed eye, when you were doing the talking. Like the woman 
of the French salons, he had the art of intellectual irritation. He 



author yy 

drew out of you your best thoughts, like the eminent pedagogue, 
who said, " I teach not ; I awaken ! " 
He took the impress of your thought, without urging his own. 

He was a master of irony, but was accustomed to 
apply it not to particular individuals, but to classes or to 
humanity as a whole: 

According to a suggestive saying of the Man of Nazareth, 
some of us are human jackals, always in search of some com- 
fortable burrow in which to curl up and take our rest, or like 
birds of the air seeking their roosting-places in the branches 
of some great tree; others of us are like the great tree itself, 
into which all kinds of chased and tired birds fly for refuge. 

We are too much like a company of home militia that enlisted 
with the express understanding that they were never to be taken 
out of the country unless it should be invaded. 

The seminal minds out of which all reforms emerge are pro- 
verbially cautious and reserved. Like Erasmus, they are apt to 
say : " Let others affect martyrdom ; as for me, I do not consider 
myself worthy of the honor." 

There was sometimes a subtle pessimistic note in his 
thought, though often it may have been only a just 
estimate of life's experience. 

Every kind of philanthropy has its undertow. In this per- 
verse world some harm is always mixed with the good we do. 
Even kindness casts a shadow. 

It is a part of the irony of life, that youth, with all its imma- 
turity and meager experience, is required to make decisions upon 
which the whole subsequent career hinges. 

A single lifetime is too short for the accomplishment of any- 
thing. Two lifetimes have to be spliced together. We can only 
make a few tracks in the snow which those coming after us will 
see and follow home. 

" Others shall sing the song, 
Others shall right the wron^, 
Finish what I begin 
And all I fail of win." 



78 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

His frequent use of such words as the following can be 
understood only in the light of his hard experiences : 

When the glowing lava of thought has once grown cold, having 
crystallized itself into mischievous institutional forms, it is hard 
to melt it all over again, and start anew. 

Though often depressed by the actual, he had a sub- 
lime faith in the ideal. His rugged faith found frequent 
expression — a faith not born of hope in his own achieve- 
ments, but in the ultimate plans of God. 

The operations of God, slow in their beginnings, hasten to 
their conclusion with thunder speed. An apple tree is slow to 
come to the point of bearing, but a little time suffices for the 
ripening of the apple. The withered foliage clings to the 
branches of the trees, and is reluctant to let go, but a day 
comes in autumn when the air is full of falling leaves. 

If we keep in the midstream of the divine will, we release 
forces whose beneficent action is registered in distant and un- 
expected places. This is the secret of all enduring influence. 
In doing the duty nearest us, we are like the bumblebee that, 
in search for honey, plunging his proboscis down among the 
fragrant petals of some gorgeous blossom, unconsciously dis- 
lodges and distributes the pollen, thus promoting the cross- 
fertilization of plants. The best work he is doing, he knows 
nothing about. He is making the wilderness bloom like the rose. 

How can the human spirit find rest anywhere for the sole 
of her foot at such a cataclysmic time? Is there a calm eye 
at the center of this cyclone? Some seek for peace in the 
monomania of atheism. They think our health depends upon 
our minds being entirely disinfected from religious ideas. We 
should not wrestle with religion, but forget it. Our atheism 
itself, if we become conscious of it and try to justify it, becomes 
a kind of religion. 

There is always something occurring that jostles us out of 
our composure when we prepare to settle down in a long sleep 
in the materialistic theory of the universe. The bed is shorter 
than that a man can stretch himself on it. 

"Just when we are safest, there's a sunset touch, 
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, 
A chorus ending from Euripides, 



AUTHOR 79 

And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears 
As old and new at once as Nature's self 
To rap and knock and enter in our soul 
Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring 
Round the ancient idol, on its base again 
The grand Perhaps." 

These two choice observations are from his lecture on 
Matthew Arnold: 

Compassion for the sorrows of our fellow creatures, the lower 
animals, is one of the high-water marks of civilization. It seems 
to be a part of that fund of altruism deposited in human his- 
tory by the Man of Nazareth, whose tender regard for the 
sparrow falling to the ground, the doves in their wicker cages, 
the laboring and heavy-laden beasts of burden, and the lost 
sheep pathetically pressing its head against the shepherd's neck, 
seems so strangely out of touch with the habits and sentiments 
of the age to which he belonged, and of Oriental life as we see 
it now. 

But in Matthew Arnold, a sort of high priest of Nature, 
as he was, the druidical temperament was softened by sym- 
pathy with humanity. He will always be read, because he puts 
into classical form the soul's saddest moods. His tone is 
pessimistic, in contrast with Browning's robust optimism. He 
finds us when our spirits are at their lowest ebb. Such men 
comfort us not so much for any positive truth that they offer, 
as because they have felt our mental pain and interpret us to 
ourselves, just as a cool soothing hand on a fevered brow is 
more than medicine. 

A mind reveals itself by what it feeds upon. One of 
the most interesting discoveries made in the preparation 
of this work has been the wealth of choicest quotations 
from masterpieces of English literature, both in prose 
and in poetry, with which Doctor Judson's files were 
stocked. The range of these quotations, their generally 
healthy tone, their depth of human sympathy, well illus- 
trate the breadth of Edward Judson's sympathy and 
literary taste. He says : 



80 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

You can hardly find anywhere any more exquisite cries of 
pain than in Matthew Arnold as when he wrote, " The guide 
of our dark steps," etc. 

He contrasts Arnold with Browning and with William 
Watson, who more truly represented Doctor Judson's 
own feeling. 

His plaintive misgivings regarding age and death are in strong 
contrast with the iron hopefulness of Browning, who 

"Never doubted clouds would break; 
Never dreamed though right were worsted, wrong would triumph. 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake." 

Even William Watson strikes a more cheerful note : 

" Say what you will, the young are happy never. 
Give me blest age, beyond the fire and fever — 
Past the delight that shatters, hope that stings, 
And eager fluttering of life's ignorant wings." 

" How often since his departure,'' he said of Doctor 
Clarke, " have come to my mind Browning's great lines 
about the 'Death in the Desert'": 

[We shall] " not see him any more 
About the world with his divine regard ! 
For all was as I say, and now the man 
Lies as he lay once, breast to breast with God." 

With delicate feeling he says : 

They remind you of the voiceless of whom Oliver Wendell 
Holmes so pathetically sings: 

" O hearts that break and give no sign 
Save whitening lip and fading tresses, 
Till Death pours out his [cordial] wine 

Slow-dropped from Misery's crushing presses." 

It may be some old missionary or retired minister with 

" Hearts worn out with many wars, 
And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot stars." 

Choice and apt quotations found their way into his ser- 
mons, as this from George Eliot : 



AUTHOR 8 I 

The days and the months pass over us like restless little birds, 
and leave the marks of their feet backward and forward; espe- 
cially when they are like birds with heavy hearts, then they 
tread heavily. 

On several occasions he used this quotation as ap- 
plicable to certain men gifted in organization : 

I cannot fiddle, but I can make a small town grow into a 
large city. 

He liked to trace to their sources familiar quotations. 
These phrases, he says, were some of Matthew Arnold's 
verbal contributions to the English language : 

" Sweetness and light," " sweet reasonableness," the " power 
outside of us that makes for righteousness," " conduct being 
three-fourths of life," and many single words like " Philistines," 
11 Barbarians," " Zeitgeist," have become an integral part of 
English speech. 

In a tribute to the well-known Lewis family of Hamil- 
ton he says: 

They resemble the character described by Homer — who en- 
deared himself to all men; for he befriended them all, living 
in a house by the side of the road. 

These words are as truly descriptive of his own 

attitude: „ .. . , . , 

Her plain-song piety preferred 

Pure life to precept. If she erred 

She knew her faults. Her softest word 

Was for the erring. 

On the other hand, he had learned with Emerson the 
significance of a " warlike attitude " which " the man 
within the breast assumes " if he would meet life as it is : 
or as Goethe has it : 

Thou must rise or fall, 
Thou must rule and win, 
Or else serve and lose, 
Suffer or triumph, 
Be anvil or hammer. 



82 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

His soul had felt the contrast in the following lines 
for no man loved the fields better than he. He remarked 
to the writer one time that quiet was a luxury not to be 
had in a big town. 

What Christ Said 

I said, " Let me walk in the fields ; " 
He said, " Nay, walk in the town ; " 

I said, " There are no flowers there ; " 
He said, " No flowers, but a crown." 

I said, " But the sky is black, 
There is nothing but noise and din ; " 

But he wept as he sent me back — 
" There is more," he said, " there is sin." 

I said, " But the air is thick, 

And fogs are veiling the sun ; " 
He answered, " Yet hearts are sick, 

And souls in the dark undone." 

I said, " I shall miss the light, 
And friends will miss me, they say ; " 

He answered me, " Choose to-night 
If I am to miss you or they." 

I pleaded for time to be given ; 

He said, " Is it hard to decide? 
It will not seem hard in heaven 

To have followed the steps of your Guide." 

— George Macdonald. 

Florence Wilkinson struck a note to which his heart 
responded, for had he not dedicated his life to such as 
those of whom she speaks in "The Flower Factory"? 

Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, 

They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one — 

Little children who have never learned to play; 

Teresina softly crying that her fingers ache to-day, 

Tiny Fiametta nodding when the twilight slips in, gray. 

High above the clattering street, ambulance, and fire-gong beat, 

They sit, curling crimson petals, one by one, one by one. 



AUTHOR 83 

Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, 

They have never seen a rose-bush nor a dewdrop in the sun. 

They will dream of the vendetta, Teresina, Fiametta, 

Of a Black Hand and a face behind a grating; 

They will dream of cotton petals, endless, crimson, suffocating, 

Never of a wild-rose thicket nor the singing of a cricket ; 

But the ambulance will bellow through the wanness of theiij 

dreams, 
And their tired lids will flutter with the street's hysteric screams. 

Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, 

They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one. 

Let them have a long, long playtime, Lord of Toil, when toil is 

done! 
Fill their baby hands with roses, joyous roses of the sun. 

He felt the appeal of such poems as Kipling's " If," 
and even of such lines as " The Things That Count," by 
Clarence Urmy. In his sermons he used with telling 
effect his ability to memorize readily long quotations from 
the best writers. 

These words, often on his lips, especially during his last 
years, were understood by his friends as a reflection of 
his faith in the ultimate triumph of his ideals : 

Before the monstrous wrong he sets him down — 
One man against a stone-walled city of sin. 
For centuries those walls have been a-building; 
Smooth porphyry, they slope and coldly glass 
The flying storm and wheeling sun. No chink, 
No crevice lets the thinnest arrow in. 
He fights alone, and from the cloudy ramparts 
A thousand evil faces gibe and jeer him. 
Let him lie down and die ; what is the right, 
And where is justice, in a world like this? 
But by and by, earth shakes herself, impatient ; 
And down, in one great roar of ruin, crash 
Watch-tower and citadel and battlements. 
When the red dust has cleared, the lonely soldier 
Stands with strange thoughts beneath the friendly stars. 

— E. R. Sill. 



V 

A SOCIAL PIONEER 

An institutional church, then, is an organized body of Chris- 
tian believers, who finding themselves in a hard and uncon- 
genial environment, supplement the ordinary methods of the 
gospel — such as preaching, prayer-meetings, Sunday School, and 
pastoral visitation — by a system of organized kindness, a con- 
geries of institutions, which by touching people on physical, social, 
?nd intellectual sides, will conciliate them and draw them 
within reach of the gospel. — Edward Judson. 

The City to Which He Came 

NO other generation witnessed social changes as 
great as those which occurred during the thirty 
years that Doctor Judson lived and worked in lower New 
York, and certainly few men have been permitted to have 
so large a part in working them out as did he. 

Ex-Ambassador Bryce, in speaking of the political con- 
ditions in New York in the early eighties, said : 

Evils in politics, which thirty years ago were considered so 
normal that people assumed them to be necessary, are now 
considered scandals which must be attacked and expunged. I 
remember seeing William M. Tweed during his day, and I re- 
member talking to some of your good citizens of New York in 
those days, and I remember that in those days it was thought that 
New York was lying helpless under a yoke that could not be 
shaken off. Municipal misgovernment was supposed to be a natu- 
ral and necessary feature of popular government. Democracy was 
bearing, so men said, its proper fruit. Fortunately, there arose 
a generation of men who started reform in New York. 

In the same year that Lord Bryce spoke these words 
Edward Judson referred to " that social compunction 
which formed the high-water mark of our civilization." 
84 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 85 

No such high-water mark was visible in 1881. That was 
before the charity organization movement had taken defi- 
nite form in New York. Such an organization had been 
effected in New Haven and in Philadelphia in 1878; in 
Cincinnati and in Brooklyn the following year, but not 
until 1882 in New York. Many social activities now 
related to the Charity Organization Society were not then 
in existence. Hundreds of the charities now listed in the 
charities directory had not so much as been thought of. 

There was no municipal wood-yard to test the sincerity 
of those who professed willingness to work, and to assist 
them with temporary relief. It was several years later, 
under the reform administration of Mayor Strong, that 
a municipal lodging-house was established (1898). The 
maimed, the halt, and the blind were seen in large numbers 
upon the public highways because neither public nor 
private charity had been organized to meet the real needs 
and to sift the false from the true. 

That was before tenement-house reform had recog- 
nition or fruitage. It was during those days when one- 
quarter of the children " never grew up to lisp the sacred 
name of mother," one-third " never reached their third 
year," and one-half " never reached manhood or woman- 
hood," as Jacob Riis later pointed out ; but that was years 
before Jacob Riis had gained any recognition. It was 
at the time of the rear tenement-house, in which the 
death-rate was three times greater than in houses stand- 
ing in single rows. The city had not yet learned the sig- 
nificance of Manning's statement that " Domestic life 
creates a people," and had not shared in Lord Shaftes- 
bury's conviction : " I am certain that until their domi- 
ciliary conditions are Christianized (I can use no less 
forcible term), all hope of moral and social improvement 
is utterly vain. The question of the housing of the people 
is in a very real sense a religious question." 



86 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

The day of the settlement house had not yet dawned in 
America; indeed, at that very time Arnold Toynbee was 
working at the settlement idea in St. Jude, London. 
Two years later the first university settlement was 
founded by Oxford men ; but it was not until 1889 that 
the first settlement was established in New York — the 
College Settlement, soon followed by the University Set- 
tlement in New York and Hull House in Chicago — all in 
response to that social compunction which was finding 
expression. 

The Fresh-air Movement was just taking shape. In 
1877 the Rev. Willard Parsons, late manager of the 
Tribune Fresh-air Fund, took children from New York 
as guests of his congregation in Sherman, Pennsylvania. 
In 1881 the movement was still in its swaddling-clothes. 

At that time the municipality did not have any sense of 
social obligation. Doctor Judson had been in New York 
nearly ten years before there was any marked social evo- 
lution in the public schools. Public lectures were insti- 
tuted by the Board of Education in 1889 ; kindergartens 
were introduced in 1893. ^ n those days there were no 
roof-gardens, public playgrounds, recreation centers, nor 
vacation schools. The municipality was waiting for 
the church to lead it into social ministry, as indeed it 
had waited for the church to establish the first schools. 

But social compunction had found meager expression 
in the church itself. The church had not learned how 
to organize this social impulse, for while it had always 
recognized the duty of the strong to bear the infirmities 
of the weak, it had counted upon the spirit of neighbor- 
liness and the hand of private charity to meet neighbor- 
hood needs, except as there had long been the necessity 
of gathering children into orphanages and other depend- 
ents into other special institutions. But the church had 
not learned to adjust itself to the social problems of the 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 87 

congested tenement districts, for they were a new social 
phenomenon. 

The term " institutional church " had not been coined. 
It was first used by President Tucker, of Dartmouth 
College, in a public address in Boston; or, more strictly, 
he referred to the Berkeley Temple as institutionalizing, 
but was quoted as having referred to Berkeley Temple 
as an institutional church; thus it was through a news- 
paper blunder that the term was used. There were few 
churches that were making any attempt to institution- 
alize^ — they had not thought to " socialize." It had be- 
come the tendency of the family church to minister to 
exclusive classes in restricted neighborhoods, and the 
church had followed families up-town as though im- 
pelled by a great economic force. 

New York City has never been characteristically Amer- 
ican. It has ever been on the frontier of successive 
foreign invasions. As a geologist may trace geological 
history by a study of rock formation, stratified by suc- 
cessive deposits, so New York's racial history may be 
traced by the stratification of its people. At the time 
Doctor Judson came to New York the leading foreign 
groups were German and Irish — neither at that time as- 
similated, each creating racial aversions just as the 
Italians, and the Russians, and the Poles have created 
like antagonisms since. 

Neither social organizations nor the churches had 
arisen to their high opportunities either to Americanize 
or to Christianize these foreign elements. Classes for 
teaching English to foreigners were hardly known. The 
church had not given the gospel in the mother tongue 
except to a few nationalities. According to the City 
Record for 1881 the only organized non-English-speaking 
Protestant churches outside of the Lutheran group were 
for the Germans, the Swedes, and the Welsh. 

G 



88 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

In his own denomination Doctor Judson found foreign- 
speaking churches only for the Germans and the Swedes. 
There were religious services for the Jews and for the 
Chinese, and the year of his arrival in New York a mis- 
sion for the French was opened by the Baptist City Mis- 
sion Society. In the summer of 1881 Tent Evangel, said 
to be the first organized tent movement in New York, 
was opened by the same society. 

A comparative study of the denominational strength 
of Protestant churches in New York City for 1881 is not 
available, but we are indebted to the New York "Evening 
Post" for such a study based on the figures for 1882. 
The relative strength of the several leading denomina- 
tions was as follows : Episcopal, 25,733 ; Presbyterian, 
21,520; Baptist, 13,027; Methodist, 12,856; Reformed, 
6,869 I Congregational, 2,449 ; a total of 82,454 for the six 
leading denominations as compared with 67,940 in the 
former decade. This study does not include the several 
branches of the Lutherans, which have now come to 
occupy second place. 

At that time among the leading figures in the several 
denominations in New York City were: Baptist, Dr. 
Thomas Armitage, Dr. Robert S. MacArthur, and Dr. 
William R. Williams; Episcopal, Dr. Henry C. Potter 
(rector of Grace Church) ; Lutheran, Dr. G. U. Wenner, 
Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, and Dr. G. F. Krotel; Presby- 
terian, Dr. John Hall, Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, and Dr. 
Howard Crosby; Congregational, Dr. W. M. Taylor. 

The New York " Post " in 1888 gave this interesting 
observation on religious conditions on the basis of a ten- 
year survey: 

Within five years nearly or quite a quarter of million souls 
have been added to the population of the metropolis, and it is 
important as well as instructive, to know to what extent this 
addition to our social integral has become a part of the organ- 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 89 

ized religious life of the community, and to what school of 
thought or form of worship, if to an}', it most conspicuously tends. 
In view of the social agitations forced upon the American people 
in late years by the enormous influx of alien elements, the inquiry 
has something more than a merely speculative interest. It is 
admitted on all sides that the church is a social conservator. It 
needs to be stated that in this city the Christian Church as a 
numerical aggregate, at least as far as most of the Protestant 
denominations are concerned, falls steadily behind the ratio of 
increase in population. Only one denomination, the Episcopalian, 
has exceeded the ratio of growth in population. That the prob- 
lem of Christianizing this heterogeneous and indifferent popula- 
tion is not a simple one needs not to be pointed out. That money 
is an important element admits of no doubt. 

These conclusions are borne out by an extract from the 
report of the Trinity Corporation in 1877: 

In consequence of the sale and removal of churches, the lower 
part of the city of New York has become a mission field, in the 
strict sense of the words. The old parish churches have dis- 
appeared, the clergymen are gone, the public worship of Almighty 
God has ceased in places where it had long been carried on, and 
little remains to call to the minds of the population the truths 
that there is a Supreme Being, and that it is the duty of man 
to believe in him, to fear him, to love him, and to honor his 
holy day and name. 

Such was New York as Edward Judson found it. No 
finer analysis of the situation can be found than that 
given by him: 

Just as soon as the island widens out northward, business 
tends to fringe the water-fronts and the main thoroughfares, 
and it ascends skyward by means of elevators, and there are 
left in the interstices behind the congested masses of population, 
denser than anywhere else in the world. People are packed to- 
gether in tenement-houses like sardines in a box. 

The Latin and Celtic races predominate over the Saxon. 
Materialistic and sacramentarian notions form the religion of 
the people. Evangelical people are fleeing, as from a plague, 
and their places are rapidly being filled by families that are 
unresponsive to your gospel. Day and night you are confronted 



90 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

by the hideous forms of pauperism, prostitution, intemperance, 
and crime. You are like one who with great expense and 
pains builds a library in a place where people have no taste for 
books. 

The streets swarm with children like a rabbit-warren. There 
is a saloon on every corner. These people outvote us at every 
election. We catch their diseases. The miasma from this social 
swamp steals upward and infects our whole municipal life, and 
our cities determine the character and destiny of our coun- 
try. We must be either hammer or anvil — either subdue these 
people with the gospel or in the end be assimilated by them. 

Now these great masses of people left down-town by the 
upward trend of business and genteel residences, and composed 
largely of foreign elements dominated by materialistic or sacra- 
mentarian notions, constitute at our very doors a mission field 
of unparalleled richness and promise. But, like all rich mission 
fields, it is hard to work, and, if neglected, becomes a menace. 
We have a new and very dangerous phase of social alienation. 
The tendency is for the intelligent, well-to-do, and church- 
going people to withdraw little by little from this part of the 
city. 

This, he said, is the impression which the flight of 
churches makes on working men : 

An untutored working woman or man who toils hard and 
long for what will buy but little of life's needs, who has seen 
congregation after congregation leave the lower districts of our 
city because fashion is retreating northward before the advance 
of business and it is not considered pleasant or in the best 
form to maintain a church in a region whose private houses 
are being gradually transformed into tenements — any hard- 
pressed wage-worker not blessed with strong faith in God, who 
has seen Christianity moving out of his neighborhood into the 
precincts of wealth, and the churches dying as it were before 
his eyes, is apt to feel somehow as if Christianity were deserting 
him, as if, because there is a deep snow-drift in front of my 
door, I should infer that there is deep snow all over the plain. 
His belief in a good God, in a providing Father, seems to 
weaken, and we must not be surprised that doubt, at last, sup- 
plants faith and atheism grows. So come despair and hope- 
lessness, carelessness and improvidence. There is no founda- 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 91 

tion for character but the teachings of the Christian religion. 
This character which alone can bear comfort must be built up by 
the church. 

He characterized thus the tendency of the church : 

We are like a working man who uses his strongest tools where 
is the easiest work to do, or a general who turns his heaviest 
guns upon the weakest point in the enemy's line, or a physician 
who injects his medicine into the least diseased portions of his 
patient's body. We make a mistake of huddling our best preach- 
ers and our most amply equipped churches in that part of the 
city where they are least needed, and where refining influences 
are most abundant; and, on the other hand, just where the 
population is densest and materialism most strongly intrenched, 
we bring to bear our weakest and poorest appliances. It is as 
though during a cold night one should unconsciously gather the 
bedclothes up around one's neck, leaving the extremities stark 
and chill. 

With searching sarcasm he analyzed the work of the 
minister who is shrewd enough to seek a " favorable " 
location for his church. 

If he is a shrewd man, he will always be careful to select such 
a spot — where the social currents converge in his favor. He will 
call it securing a " strategic position." But the very swiftness 
of your success awakens misgivings. You are surprised that 
with this environment the church of Christ should advance with 
such long, easy strides. You begin to ask yourself the question 
that fell from the lips of the aged patriarch Isaac when his 
younger son undertook to palm himself off as the elder, and 
spread before him the savoiy but premature dish of venison, 
" How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son ? " You 
proceed to analyze the audience you have gathered, and you 
discover it is composed of people who went to church before. 
You explore the ecclesiastical pedigree of those who fill your 
pews, and you find them registered. You have only succeeded in 
getting a handful here, and a handful there, from this church 
and from that. There is no production of new material. It is 
merely a sleight-of-hand performance, as when you turn a 
kaleidoscope, and the same identical pieces of glass shift and 
form a new combination. You have really made no impression 



92 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

upon the great non-churchgoing man. The acute pleasure you 
feel in seeing so many people in your church is a good deal 
mitigated by the thought that another minister here and there 
is correspondingly depressed by noting their absence from his. 

He placed the responsibility for the weakness of the 
churches' down-town, not so much upon the few who re- 
main, as upon the many who in taking up residence 
in more favored locations, assume no responsibility for 
the district they have left: 

The wealthier people are moving into the suburbs; they come 
into the city to make their bread, but go into the suburbs to make 
their homes. This tendency is accelerated as the means of trans- 
portation are made more perfect. The very poor are left behind 
in this general decampment, and being out of sight are naturally 
out of mind. To live in New York in these times requires some- 
thing of the spirit of self-sacrifice to which Nehemiah alludes 
in the words : " The people blessed all the men who willingly 
offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem." 

Down-town churches succumb to the slow process of decay, 
just as in some great northern lake the construction of a dam 
causes the water to rise and to submerge the roots of the trees 
that fringe its shores, so that lifeless and despoiled of their 
verdure, they stand there like pale, gaunt skeletons. And this 
march of decay creeps slowly up the island, as dropsy, beginning 
with the feet, climbs slowly up until it floods the vitals. 

If the rich and the poor are ever to meet together, it must be 
in the poor man's territory; for money and locomotion are cor- 
relative terms. 

What was his strategy ? 

It is not strange that many good people are shy of church insti- 
tutionalism. They say that what we want is "the simple 
gospel," and, if Christ be lifted up, he will draw all men to 
him. But the difficulty is to bring men within reach of the 
gospel. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not 
heard? The preacher is often like one who rings a silver bell 
in a vacuum. What is the use of transmuting the gospel into 
atmospheric vibrations, if there are no ears within the reach of 
these vibrations? Church institutionalism is nothing more than 
systematic, organized kindness, which conciliates the hostile and 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 93 

indifferent, alluring them within reach, and softening their hearts 
for the reception of the word of life. It can never take the 
place of the gospel. All the old, tried methods must be con- 
served — well-thought-out and inspiring sermons, attractive prayer- 
meetings and Sunday School, faithful and painstaking pastoral 
visitation. The worst-off need the best we have of preaching, 
music, architecture — all the rest, not cold victuals and a servants' 
dining-room — a church, not a mission. My own rule is to preach 
twice a Sunday, attend my Sunday School, conduct my weekly 
prayer-meetings, and make fifty calls a week. 

His thought was not to establish a mission, but that the 
church should take up its mission. He says : 

Rescue missions, gospel halls, and the like are only feeble and 
hectic substitutes for vigorous church organizations. The church 
should have its missions in a social swamp, and begin by being 
itself a mission. 

His hope was in the ministry of the local church, not 
in the service of Christian people through other organiza- 
tions. 

In my opinion this definite social organism, the local church, 
a group of Christians who meet habitually in one place for wor- 
ship, the preaching of the word, and the celebration of the 
sacraments, contains the potency for the cure of all the ills that 
flesh is heir to. Here lies the solution to every social problem. 
Let no other society displace in our consciousness the local church. 

Such was Edward Judson's theory ; how did he attempt 
to apply it? He built in faith — faith in God, in the peo- 
ple, in himself, and in his method. His commitment of 
himself was absolute and irrevocable: 

I have heard "the sound of the going in the tops of the 
mulberry trees," and I have tried to bestir myself for the battle. 
I believe there is before me an invisible guide, and I propose 
to follow him. I do not dream of such a thing as want of real 
success. There is not a spot on Manhattan Island so favorably 
located as this for a church. I have studied this island care- 
fully. The blessing is to come. 



94 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

With these words he closed his sermon on the third Sun- 
day of his pastorate, October 23, 1881. This was his 
challenge to his church. 

Without neglecting preaching, the prayer-meeting, and 
pastoral visitation, he at once brought into being a system 
of organized kindness — a congeries of institutions which 
the neighborhood needed and which marked an epoch in 
the method of the Church. 

Children made an instant appeal to him. He felt that 
" the key to the problem of city evangelization is held in 
the puny hands of a little child." Both quantitatively 
and qualitatively, the child seemed to have the primacy. 
During his first summer in New York he instituted fresh- 
air work. The first home to be established was known 
as the Kinmuth Memorial, located in Hamilton, New 
York; the second among the hills of Vermont, at Brat- 
tleboro ; the third at Little Silver, New Jersey. To each 
of these homes, as indeed to private houses, the children 
were sent for periods of two weeks each. This fresh-air 
work was not limited to children, but included the aged 
and the sick, and overworked shop-girls. Those who were 
ill — some of them victims of cruel social surroundings — 
were sent to special homes for the whole summer. It 
would be difficult to find service of a higher grade than 
that of Miss Anna L. Isham, now Mrs. Owen A. Palmer, 
of Brooklyn, who assisted Doctor Judson for many years 
in this department of work. 

A ministry unique at the time was established during 
these early years. A drinking-fountain, supplied with 
chilled water, was installed in the corner of the church 
building. This fountain, with its social background, is 
graphically described in the New York " World " of 
August 15, 1885: 

We are losing babies at the rate of forty or fifty a day, the 
effect of heat alone. . . There are days in this August month 




ICE-WATER FOUNTAIN AT CORNER OF CHURCH 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 95 

of blisters when men say to themselves, " Hang me if I can 
stand this much longer" — and then they take a drink. It is 
hard enough for men of serge and flannel, with palm-leaf fans 
and money, to endure this scorching weather, and observation 
teaches me that the laborers on the streets manage to sustain the 
infliction, but how the women and children stand it is a puzzler. 

I strolled down the Ninth ward the other day, and turning 
into Bedford Street, passed an old Baptist church. I saw a 
crowd surrounding an ice-water fountain. Some children were 
carrying away water in pitchers and cans, others were drinking, 
and pronounced the water cool and refreshing. Then a truck- 
man coming in from Varick Street stopped and, stepping down 
from his wagon, drank the water with an evident relish. 

I enjoyed all that, and inquired about the fountain. 

Then I learned that the church had placed it there for the 
accommodation of the people living about, for the purpose of 
counteracting, in a measure at least, the effects of the liquor shop. 
First, then, a woman with a well-filled pitcher came from 
the fountain, and I questioned her. She was full of praise for 
the people through whose liberality she could get what she 
could not procure herself. " The fountain is a blessing — indeed 
it is that," she said earnestly. When her child was sick, and she 
that poor she couldn't buy ice, and the child cried for a cooling 
drink, didn't she go in the middle of the night and draw water 
just as cool and fresh as it was in the middle of the day? "I 
wouldn't have known what to do without it," she said. "It is 
a blessing indeed," she repeated with much feeling. " And then," 
she continued, "when they heard that the child was sick, they 
sent flowers, and offered to send the child into the country — 
and I don't even belong there." 

When the Memorial Church was erected on Wash- 
ington Square, this feature of the work was enlarged. 
The fountain, built into the corner of the church with 
fine architectural effect, was dedicated to the memory 
of Rev. Duncan Dunbar, long pastor of the MacDougal 
Street Baptist Church. Two other ice-water fountains 
were later installed on the corner of West Third Street 
and Thompson, in the rear of the church property, one 
a gift of Helen Gould. At present they are provided 



g6 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

with water chilled by an ice-plant in the engine-room of 
the Judson Hotel. For a shorter period the Judson 
Memorial maintained other ice-water fountains at the 
Industrial Christian Alliance on Bleecker Street; at the 
Mariners' Temple, Oliver and Henry streets ; and at the 
Second Avenue Baptist Church. 
A New York " Sun " reporter more recently has said : 

All day long a crowd surrounds the drinking-basin at the 
Thompson Street corner of the Judson Memorial Baptist Church. 
The crowd is as cosmopolitan as the neighborhood. About six 
o'clock in the evening the crowd is thickest; sometimes it is so 
large as to block the corner. 

The visitor from the New York " World," whose words 
are quoted above, tells this story : 

Then I saw some children enter, and I went in with them. 
The sight which met me would have made any one glad. I 
saw a lady and some bright healthy children busy with two great 
baskets of flowers. As quickly as they could be arranged they 
were put into bouquets ; then willing hands received them, and 
quickly they were on their way to brighten some sick chamber 
with their fragrance and beauty. The lady in charge kindly and 
courteously volunteered to give all the information I desired. 
Twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) large baskets of flowers 
are received and distributed. Willing little girls, only too anx- 
ious to do good, carry them to all those in the vicinity who are 
known to be sick, and to all others who are infirm, and to the 
aged. Be they of whatever creed or nationality, if a bunch of 
pretty flowers can cheer or brighten their desolation, they are not 
forgotten. 

The Rev. Edward Simmons, an efficient worker at the 
church during the last years of Doctor Judson's ministry, 
has given these interesting flower stories : 

Tony is a lad of about seven years, and the leader of the 
toughest and meanest gang of boys around Washington Square. 
The gang is composed of fifteen lads of from five to eight 
years of age, and their main occupation is seeking " chases " 
and stealing anything they lay their hands upon when they get 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 97 

a chance. They have been seen to hold up boys and rifle their 
pockets, and steal toys, velocipedes, and other playthings from 
the children who spend their playhours in the park. 

Tony, the leader and tyrant of the gang, is a little fellow with 
a large capacity for mischief. Many efforts have been made to 
reach him and interest him in the church and the services for 
children, but he has had a grudge against us and has sought 
every way to trouble us. 

The day we received the flowers from the North Orange 
Church found Tony leading the gang in making life miserable 
for everybody in sight, and snatching the flowers away from 
the children who had them. I picked out the most beautiful 
rose and went out to Tony. He saw a chance to bother me 
and started in, but when I hefd out the rose and said, "Here, 
Tony, I brought this for you," he looked pleased and came and 
took it. It gave me an opportunity to have a little talk with 
him. With my arm on his shoulder, and the gang surrounding 
us, I told him I wanted to be his friend and have him for mine ; 
that if he were to be my friend he must not bother the people 
and must stop stealing. Then I took the whole gang to the 
church, and gave them each a little bunch of flowers and Tony 
a bunch to take to his mother. For the rest of that day at least 
Tony and his gang were very good, and now when I see them 
around here, instead of expecting a stone thrown at me, and 
my hat knocked off, and to be hooted and sworn at, Tony and 
his followers run up to me to shake hands, and talk about the 
good times we hope to have this summer. It is the first step, 
we trust, in winning Tony for Jesus. 

Angelina, a little barefooted girl in a dirty ragged dress 
and with sparkling brown eyes, came for a flower when she 
saw the other children with them, and so I took her into the 
room where the flowers were on the table, and she was so 
amazed at seeing so many that she just stood and looked at 
them. I told her to help herself to a small bunch, choosing 
just the kind she wished. She didn't know which ones to take 
at first, there were so many; then she chose some buttercups. 
I asked her why she didn't take some of the others, and she 
said, " They're too pretty ; I didn't think you'd let me have any 
of them." I chose one of each kind to make a little bunch, and 
gave them to her. It was a beautiful sight to see her happiness, 
and it was also touching to see her stop every few steps and 
look at them and kiss them. 



98 EDWAPD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

The last bunch, some daisies, was given to a little girl whose 
joy was indescribable as she started out of the door. A lot of 
children had gathered there to ask for some, among them a 
crippled girl who made her way on crutches, for both limbs 
were in braces. When I told them there were no more flowers 
their faces grew very long and sad, and they envied the little 
girl with the last bunch. I pointed to her and said, " She has 
the last of the flowers." Just as I did so she saw the little girl 
on crutches. Then I realized that there is ofttimes more good 
in people than we think; for she took the bunch which I knew 
she prized dearly and divided it with the little cripple. 

The history of the kindergarten is an interesting story, 
for in its evolution it has undergone a marked change. 
Edward Judson was probably the first in New York 
City, perhaps in the United States, to establish a church 
kindergarten. Children under school age, for whom there 
was no educational and little religious or social pro- 
vision, appealed strongly to him — but the primary appeal 
was religious. He saw the opportunity to give young 
children religious training before they entered the public 
schools where it would perforce be denied them. There- 
fore about 1885 he opened a kindergarten, but received 
children of primary age as well. A nominal tuition of 
five cents a week was charged. He said : 

All systematic study of the Bible is, of necessity, rigidly ex- 
cluded from our public schools. . . We have indeed the Sunday 
School as a medium for the impartation of scriptural knowl- 
edge; but we fear that this appliance, admirable though it be, 
is quite inadequate to the mighty task. . . It seems that provi- 
dentially we are granted, as Christians, one great relief and 
opportunity amid our difficulties. The church kindergarten opens 
the way out. The public-school system excludes these extremely 
little ones, and in fact, I am informed that in the public schools 
the youngest scholars admitted are very much crowded. 

Now, here is the opportunity for the church. Let her take 
these little ones daily to her bosom, imparting to them in their 
tender years that nurture which shall enable them through 
their future career to endure the shocks of skeptical thought. 



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A SOCIAL PIONEER 99 

We suggest that this important want may be partially met by 
the church kindergarten. It should be held in some part of 
the church edifice. Let there be a session of three hours every 
day except Saturday and Sunday. Let an intelligent and con- 
secrated lady be the teacher. A half-hour at least each day 
should be devoted exclusively to interesting and consecutive 
Bible study. We cannot compete with the State in the educa- 
tion of the older children. 

This kindergarten was transferred to the new building 
on Washington Square, and a second kindergarten was 
started; later, largely because of financial stress, one 
was turned over to the management of the Board of 
Education and the other to the New York Kindergarten 
Association; another instance of an important activity 
inaugurated by the church being taken over by the State 
and stripped of its distinctive character. 

Compassion for the child and the instinct of benevo- 
lence were so strong in Edward Judson that he planned 
for the permanent care of young children. Provision for 
the care of orphans had been made by scores of other 
institutions, but children whose parents were unfit or 
unable to care for them had been quite neglected. The 
very poor do not know how, or are unable, to meet an 
emergency. It is at these hours of special stress that a 
helping hand may save a family. So it came about that 
when the Judson Memorial was erected, arrangement was 
made for the care of a small company of children through 
the benevolent provision made in the will of Mr. Hiram 
Deats, late of Flemington, New Jersey. When it was 
found that the children could not be cared for advan- 
tageously on Washington Square, and that the Home in- 
terfered with the success of the Judson Hotel, a fine 
site was secured in Somerville, New Jersey, and a suit- 
able building erected. From that time to this the Home 
has sheltered from twenty to thirty helpless children, 
giving them religious care and kkidly nurture. Now the 



I0O EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

granting of widows' pensions, the tendency to board de- 
pendent children in families, and the later establishment 
of other homes have decreased the need for this one, and 
it will probably be used for the children of foreign mis- 
sionaries. 

Far more perplexing than the care of children and 
with less compensating results is the ministry to the very 
poor. Much of it is not even remedial, but is frankly 
palliative, leaving the individuals much as they were, and 
contributing little or nothing to the solution of the social 
problem. And yet just that sort of thing was what 
Edward Judson believed that Christianity stands for as 
well as for remedial and constructive work. Many years 
before there was a municipal wood-yard or lodging-house, 
wood was stored in the cellar of the Berean Church to 
be cut into kindling by the men and sold by the women. 
f A lodging-house for men was also maintained. In this 
way the church enabled the very poor to keep soul and 
body together, while a margin of time was left them for 
seeking regular employment. " It often happens," he 
says, " that if you undertake to help a person the relief 
hurts his self-respect; sometimes it so impairs his inde- 
pendence that he just settles right down on you. In 
philanthropic work there is a kind of undertow; there 
is always some evil mixed up with the good you do. 
The soul naturally looks for gratitude, and yet there is 
a conspicuous absence of any such response." With char- 
acteristic irony he quotes Lord Macaulay as saying on 
his death-bed that he did not have any enemy except 
those whom he had befriended. The following letter 
has interest in this connection. The writer did not have 
the moral courage to sign it : 

My dear Sir : I have intended writing you for some time past. 
I noticed your drinking-water at the corner was turned off 
last fall. 



A SOCIAL PIONEER IOI 

I suppose you expect people to drink that water in the sum- 
mer, and when it is turned off to drink beer, whisky, etc. 

Is that your religion? 

Why not let it run at one faucet the year round? It certainly 
would not cost anything to keep it cold in the wintertime, when 
you have heretofore turned it off. 

Trusting you will give this consideration, I am, 
Yours truly, 

A Christian and near-by tenant. 

New York City, March 14, 1903. 

This letter is expressive of that " fatal undertow " in 
charitable work. Society is like Oliver Twist with jaws 
ajar for " more." 

At that time he regarded the sewing schools which were 
conducted by the church as a form of "philanthropy," 
not as a point of social contact as it is now conceived. 
He says : " Poor girls meet every Saturday and learn to 
sew ; we furnish the cloth, and every child has the privi- 
lege of keeping the garments which she makes." 

Doctor Judson maintained a coal-yard for a time, 
where coal could be purchased at reasonable rates. One 
of the great hardships of the poor is the exorbitant prices 
they must pay for inferior products. In that day when 
there were few heated tenements, the suffering of the 
poor in winter was cruel. The cost of the buckets of 
coal became almost prohibitive. That was before the 
era of health reform in matters of food. Milk was com- 
monly sold which would now be consigned to the sewer. 
The poor were the most ready victims of this rapacity. 
For this reason milk was sold by the Berean Church in 
sealed jars at seven cents a quart. Announcement was 
made that if any profit should be derived from the sale, 
it would be used in establishing a free reading-room or 
library, or for other philanthropic purposes. The prac- 
tical difficulties were so great that the milk-depot was 
soon abandoned. 



102 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Doctor Judson always had sympathy for gentle folks 
who, because of circumstances beyond their control, were 
reduced to want. 

Too often he employed people, not because of what 
they could do, but because of what they needed. Not a 
few ministers received temporary appointments for work 
at the Memorial Church on this basis. Indeed, it was one 
of Doctor Judson's dreams to establish what he called a 
ministerial wood-yard for employing ministers who might 
be able to do some good, and yet whose efficiency would 
not justify compensation on a quid pro quo basis. 

During the early years Doctor Judson thought of 
church institutionalism primarily as a form of philan- 
thropy. He would have each church encircled by a " con- 
geries of institutions " ministering to the ignorant and 
suffering. We shall find in the next chapter that while 
appreciating the changing conception of the institutional 
church, he had the earlier conception more deeply em- 
bedded in his consciousness. 

That Edward Judson's work stood for the helpful con- 
tact of strong personalities with needy lives, and not for 
mere institutionalized religion, is evidenced by this ad- 
mirable sketch on " Pastoral Visitation," drawn by the 
Rev. James M. Bruce, long Doctor Judson's associate, 
and to this day a member of the Memorial Church and 
an intelligent supporter of its work and ideals. 

The parish of a down-town church has no geographical limita- 
tions, and my day begins rather off my beat, with a morning 
visit in one of the west " forties." A young working girl, 
known in our church from childhood, had fallen suddenly ill. 
The home in which I seek her is a ground-floor flat. Its entire 
front is a shop, or, more accurately, two shops, with a slit of 
a door for each. One is a candy shop ; the other is a grocery. 
" Come in ze kitchen, come in ze kitchen ; I guess zat's 'e bes' 
room we got in ze house." The only window opens on an 
airshaft, which the boldest imagination could not glorify into 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 103 

a court. Her mother explains, mostly in French, that Marguerite 
" overlifted " herself at the factory, and the consequence was a 
hemorrhage, which nearly cost her her life. The wan, limp girl 
in the corner feebly protests that she will soon be all right. 

Madam begs me to take some coffee. Looking at the bowl 
of inky fluid, I am inclined to agree with my austere clerical 
friend, who insists that the "black drinks," tea and coffee, must 
be included in any total abstinence that deserves the name. 

To talk and pray with this honest, rough woman and her 
finer-grained daughter was a pleasant service. But my task 
became exigent and critical when I attempted to recommend a 
new plan for the young girl to the approval of her father. He 
was German Swiss, a Romanist, a habitual beer-guzzler, and in 
general a grumpy fellow. My scheme would cut off Marguerite's 
paltry earnings at the factory, although it meant improved health 
for her, and eventually assured self-support by an art she loved. 

But now I am almost due in Charlton Street for a baby's 
funeral. Through a stone-paved hall and up a staircase made 
even more crooked by dilapidation than by its eccentric design, 
I grope my way to the third-floor room, with adjacent sleeping 
closet, where the family of four surviving children and father 
and mother have what it would be cruel irony to call their home. 

The mother is combing her hair at one of the windows in 
preparation for the funeral ceremony. As I enter she hastily 
thrusts under the stove a can of tea, as she insistently explains, 
to keep it warm. I notice that the "tea" is covered with a 
whitish froth. 

The whole scene gains an added touch of vulgarity from the 
frowsy fineries of the eldest daughter of the house, who has 
recently married a cartman, and has come in her nuptial be- 
deckments to assist at the obsequies. She stands beside the 
humble bier, and howls at intervals with a perfectly artificial 
display of what she deems appropriate grief. Presently her 
blear-eyed boy of a husband appears, unwashed and in his shirt 
sleeves. I have been looking around for the father, and before 
beginning the service ask where he is. " In the bedroom resting 
after being up so much with the baby." As the baby died two 
days ago, and was only sick a few hours, this extreme paternal 
fatigue seems hardly warranted by the circumstances. I have al- 
ready heard heavy snoring through the windowless hole which sup- 
plies the sleeping closet with such air as it gets. Stepping inside 
the doorway, I discover, as I expected, the head of the family 

H 



104 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

in a drunken stupor on the loathly bed. Any effort to arouse him 
would be hopeless, and I go through the sad office of burial to 
the accompaniment of his stertorous respiration. As the under- 
taker's bill had to be paid for these not very reputable parish- 
ioners out of the church's overdrawn benevolent fund, it was 
necessary to reduce the funeral cortege to a single coach, in 
which the coffin and mourners must go together. I left the af- 
flicted family wrangling fiercely over the limited number of places 
for the coveted ride to the cemetery. 

My next duty is to search out, in a dank cellar of the City 
Hall, a pension agent to whom I have been referred on behalf 
of another of our beneficiaries. I don't quite relish ranging 
myself, even by proxy, with the horde of applicants who are 
so rapidly depleting the national treasury. 

The pension agent, an expansive and unctuous person, assured 
me that my case could be in no better hands than his, but failed 
to tell me when, if at all, it was likely to be acted on. 

I had an errand in Ludlow Street, not far from Canal, and 
as I passed through the latter thoroughfare my attention was 
arrested by a spectacle in striking contrast with the Charlton 
Street function I have described. This too was a baby's funeral, 
but on a scale of magnificence unprecedented in my mortuary 
experiences. A brass band of twelve pieces, in a state of sonorous 
activity, was just emerging from the kaleidoscopic Neapolitan 
vista of Mulberry Street. 

Soon after Doctor Judson began his work, the French 
mission, referred to above, came under the care of the 
Berean Church — one of the first instances in New York 
City of an individual church conducting religious services 
regularly in two languages. At that time the French were 
the leading foreign people in the neighborhood of the 
Berean Church. Finally, when the Italians came to take 
the places of the French, the French mission gave way 
to an Italian mission. At the writing an Italian mission 
and a church for the Letts are housed in the Judson 
Memorial. 

Doctor Judson's experience convinced him of two 
things, first that he was making a right approach to a 
perplexing problem, and secondly, that he needed better 



A SOCIAL PIONEER I05 

equipment. Back of this was a great desire fittingly to 
memorialize the life of his father. 

As early as 1886 Edward Judson proposed to erect in 
New York City a monument to his father, Adoniram 
Judson. He hoped to complete and dedicate it on August 
9, 1888, the one hundredth anniversary of his father's 
birth. In 1888 he said: 

My purpose is to erect a building which will not only pre- 
serve in beautiful and permanent form the memories of our 
early missionary history, but will also help to solve the pressing 
and difficult problem of what to do with the masses of people 
who are rilling up the lower parts of our great cities, controlling 
our municipal institutions, and through the cities are determining 
the character of our country at large. 

For seven years I have been in mission labor as pastor of 
the Berean Baptist Church in lower New York, beginning 
with almost nothing, and making use of a plain building 
situated at a very obscure corner. In spite of the great inflow 
of unevangelical population and the strong, constant drift of 
our members to more comfortable and respectable localities, 
we have had a steady and vigorous growth. Over six hundred 
persons have been baptized. 

His marked success, with poor equipment and limited re- 
sources, might well have led him to this conclusion : 

I think I have got hold of the right end of the tangled skein 
of that problem which burdens the minds of all thoughtful 
Christians, namely, the relation of the church to the masses 
of people which are filling in the lower portions of our great 
cities, and determining the character of our social and municipal 
life. 

That others shared his feeling is evidenced by this tribute 
from the New York " Observer " : 

It would be difficult to find a church, large or small, rich 
or poor, in New York or out of it, so thoroughly utilizing every 
portion of its strength as the Berean Baptist Church. For a 
truly evangelistic spirit, and practical philanthropy, it may well 
be regarded as a model. 



106 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Doctor Judson's twofold purpose, to establish a memo- 
rial to his father and to meet the needs of a down- 
town field, met with immediate approval. The Chicago 
" Standard " said at that time : 

We look upon Doctor Judson's enterprise as one having a 
national significance. The memorial of a missionary becomes 
what it should be, a lesson and example to us all. 

Again, regarding the missionary enterprise, the same 
paper said : 

Doctor Judson represents an idea which is as much a dis- 
tinctive one in practical Christianity, and as hopeful of a new 
era in Christian enterprise and service, as was that of his father. 
In several of the large cities of the country, Chicago included, 
that kind of gospel for the poor which Doctor Judson so ably 
advocates, is just now engaging attention, while some by means 
of it are stirred to new activities. We are confident that Doctor 
Judson's visit to the West, and his stirring appeal in this behalf, 
will give a powerful and long-lasting impulse to this much- 
needed work in behalf of the neglected populations of cities, 
large and small. 

In 1888, the site on Washington Square at the foot of 
Fifth Avenue was selected ; the corner-stone of the Jud- 
son Memorial, one of the first institutional church build- 
ings, was laid on the thirtieth of June of the same year ; 
on February 1, 1890, the last service in the old church 
was held, after which services were held in the Memorial 
Hall of the new building. In May, 1892, the main audi- 
torium was first used. The dedication was fittingly 
observed during the week of January 22, 1893. The first 
of the dedicatory sermons was preached by Doctor Judson 
on the text, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us " (1 Sam. 
7 : 12). He gave this interesting history of Washington 
Square : 

In 1797 the city purchased ninety lots on Sandy Hill to be 
used as a potter's field. This patch of ground, in which for a 



A SOCIAL PIONEER I07 

long time paupers were buried, became afterward Washington 
Parade Ground and more recently Washington Square. It con- 
tains eight acres; Central Park, eight hundred; Fifth Avenue 
extends from one to the other. 

In this sermon he referred to the favorable location for 
bringing the rich and the poor together. He spoke of the 
distinctly memorial character of the building itself — a 
memorial to Adoniram Judson ; the Children's Memorial 
Home, a memorial to Hiram Deats ; the organ, a memorial 
to Mrs. Havemeyer. Others were memorialized in the ex- 
quisite windows designed by La Farge, and yet others by 
tablets. He characterized the building as a memorial to 
Adoniram Judson; as a place of worship; as a mis- 
sionary institution standing against the up-town trend 
of churches; as a workshop for Christian work, educa- 
tional, social, philanthropic; and as embodying wise en- 
dowment features, through the revenue-bearing portion 
of the property. 

Some of the notable speakers of the week were the 
Rev. Henry C. Mabie, D. D. ; Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., 
who spoke on " The Life More Abundant " ; and the Rev. 
Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D. The wide outlook of the 
church and its standing is indicated by the citizens' meet- 
ing on Thursday evening, when the problem of sickness 
was discussed by Dr. George F. Baker, pastor and super- 
intendent of St. Luke's Hospital; the problem of igno- 
rance, by President Seth Low, at the time president of 
Columbia University, later mayor. The problem of social 
alienation was to have been discussed by the Right Rev. 
Henry C. Potter, but Bishop Potter was detained through 
the death of Phillips Brooks, and sent a letter, which 
was reported by the New York " Examiner " as " full of 
sympathy with the Memorial Church, pastor and people ; 
a more brotherly letter it would be difficult to conceive." 
Bishop Potter's place was taken by ex-Mayor Hewitt. 



108 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

The series of dedication services was closed on January 
twenty-ninth by the formal dedication sermon preached 
by Rev. George Dana Boardman, D. D., and by a service 
of consecration in the evening conducted by Edward 
Judson. 

The dedication program announced the following de- 
partments of work and worship : Sunday School, Church 
Choir, Junior Choir, Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor, Union Choral Class, Nursery, Kindergarten 
and Primary School, Teachers' Class for teaching the 
International Lessons, Industrial School for Girls, Gym- 
nasium Class, Memorial Home for Children, Tract De- 
pository, Dressmaking Establishment, Ice-water Foun- 
tains, Flower Mission, Fresh-air Work, Memorial Young 
Men's Class. 

The Rev. Frank Mason North, of the Methodist 
Church, an authority on city problems, now president 
of the Federal Council of Churches, paid this tribute to 
the wisdom of the selection of the Washington Square 
site: 

The site for the Judson Memorial Baptist Church was chosen 
with much deliberation and great sagacity. Whether seen in 
the open or through the framework of the memorial arch, near 
at hand, where its careful workmanship declares itself to minute 
inspection, or afar, where the architectural lines reveal them- 
selves in true proportions and its cross of light gleams above 
the city's darkness, the church is impressive and to every lover 
of heroic deeds is an inspiration. 

The large auditorium, simple and rich in its adornment, is 
reserved for worship. Commodious rooms for kindergarten, 
clubs, gymnasium classes, library, dispensary, creche, and large 
assembly-rooms for Sunday School and prayer services are amply 
provided and conveniently arranged. A temporary home for 
children has its fitting place in the very heart of the building, 
and on the western section of the property arises " The Judson," 
an apartment-house built in architectural harmony with the church 
and under wise management, yielding ten thousand dollars a 








1 



"UDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH 

THROUGH WASHINGTON ARCH 



A SOCIAL PIONEER 109 

year, not for the ordinary expenses of the church, but as an 
income from a permanent endowment for its manifold edu- 
cational, missionary, and philanthropic work. 

This was Richard Watson Gilder's tribute to Washing- 
ton Square and to " the cross of light that looms from the 
sacred tower "of the Judson Memorial. This poem was 
used frequently by Doctor Judson, with the permission 
of its author : 

Washington Square 

This is the end of the town that I love the best. 

Oh, lovely the hour of light from the burning west — 

Of light that lingers and fades in the shadowy square 

Where the solemn fountain lifts a shaft in the air 

To catch the skyey colors, and fling them down 

In a wild-wood torrent that drowns the noise of the town. 

And lovely the hour of the still and dreamy night 

When, lifted against the blue, stands the arch of white 

With one clear planet above, and the sickle moon, 

In curve reversed from the arch's marble round, 

Silvers the sapphire sky. Now soon, Ah soon, 

Shall the city square be turned to holy ground, 

Through the light of the moon and the stars and the glowing 

flower — 
The Cross of light — that looms from the sacred tower. 



VI 

THE SOCIAL PROPHET 

Success and suffering are interrelated. If we succeed with- 
out suffering, it is because others suffered before us; if we 
suffer without succeeding, it is in order that others may suc- 
ceed after us. — Edward Judson. 

WHILE some, fired by a social passion, became 
agitators, lifting their voices in loud protest; 
while some sought by their pens to guide the social im- 
pulses of forward-looking men; and while others organ- 
ized charity for its own sweet sake, Edward Judson 
sought by the radiating influence of a sympathetic life and 
by the wise organization of an understanding church, 
to make his contribution to human progress and to pro- 
mote an understanding of God. 

His soul had been cheered by his sense of spiritual 
fellowship with those like his father, who in foreign 
fields were interpreters of God by word and by deed; 
with those who in college settlements or in varied philan- 
thropies of the great cities, were expressing their love 
for mankind; and especially with those who were at- 
tempting through the church to promote an understand- 
ing between men who had not learned to think of, nor 
to feel for, each other — these interpreters of man to man 
and of God to man. He was sustained both by his sense 
of achievement in his chosen task and by his sense of 
spiritual fellowship with all these pioneers of progress. 

Those early years in lower New York had brought that 
sense of exhilaration that comes from substantial prog- 
ress. Though filled with hardship and disappointments, 
they had been free from bitterness. As a social prophet 
no 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET III 

he had seen needs not yet felt by the church, and in the 
church he had seen latent possibilities. He had set out 
to meet these needs and to realize these possibilities. Be- 
cause he was a prophet with a vision of the church's 
social task, which the church as a whole had not yet 
apprehended, because he had undertaken to embody this 
ideal in definite activities which had not received the 
sanction of missionary organizations nor the support of 
individuals, he was destined to become a suffering servant 
and to feel the poignant sorrow of unrequited effort. 

Jonah found it difficult to yield to a modification of 
his own prophecy, however much to the advantage of 
Nineveh. Edward Judson as a social prophet had spoken 
to the church before the awakened social conscience had 
found expression in ameliorative effort. He would have 
that expression through the church. He said : 

There could hardly be devised a more efficient philanthropic 
appliance for ameliorating the misery of a great town than the 
network of churches spread through its congested places, pro- 
vided each church intelligently and profoundly interests itself 
in the cure of the social sores constantly exposed to its pitying 
eye. — " The Church in Its Social Aspect," page 429. 

But in response to his own and other voices men of 
quick sympathies and of good will organized philan- 
thropies, but largely outside of the church, though they 
themselves were church-members. 

The Charity Organization Society — a kind of social 
banyan tree — was propagating and relating a thousand 
different charities ; social settlements, those neighborhood 
social touchstones, had come into being ; the municipality 
had undertaken to relieve distress, to restrain the vicious, 
to remove the causes of poverty and disease, to treat child 
life in its physical and social, as well as in its intellectual 
aspect, and to give intellectual advantages to backward 
people, whether foreign or American, 



112 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

This trend in philanthropic and charitable work away 
from the church was to Edward Judson a matter of deep 
concern. Indeed, it was one of his great disappointments. 
He was a " High-churchman " in organization of charity. 
He would have had the church not only inspire benevo- 
lence, but directly organize it, so that the most humble 
working man might be able to understand the sympathy 
of the Master. While he deeply regretted that the chari- 
table and social activities of the city had not been related 
more closely to it, he cooperated with the newer agencies. 
Some years later he made this admirable statement : 

The longer I live the more delight I take in cooperating with 
everything good that is going on anywhere near me. The 
church assumes its highest philanthropic efficiency by taking 
the humble part of an intermediary between the individual suf- 
ferer and organized relief. On the one hand, you have mil- 
lions of dollars invested in charitable institutions, and, on the 
other, unclassified misery ignorant of the provisions made for 
its relief. I try to keep myself informed regarding all the en- 
dowed philanthropies of New York, and when an applicant for 
help comes to me at my office hour, I at once ask myself the 
question whether there is not some organized form of relief 
that can grapple this particular case more scientifically and 
efficiently than I, for I feel that the little temporary help that I 
am able to bestow is a small matter compared with my bring- 
ing the sufferer within reach of some organized relief of the 
very existence of which he was ignorant. — tf Ho mile tic Review" 
August, 1909, pp. 94, 95. 

Now that the philanthropies of the city had become 
organized, the church did not need to do what it had 
done in 1881. The Charity Organization had established 
a wood-yard; the city had its municipal lodging-house; 
hospitals had established dispensaries; the city, through 
the Department of Education, was supporting kinder- 
gartens. Almost every ache or pain to which humanity 
is heir had found its correlative in an institution, a so- 
ciety, or a committee. He felt it the duty of the church 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET 113 

to study the social need and " to feel its way like a ferry- 
boat entering into a slip," to find new opportunities rather 
than to duplicate the work of other institutions. " Imita- 
tiveness is the besetting sin of social workers," he said. 
He would not have that sin laid to his charge. 

He had not failed to recognize " the fatal undertow " 
of philanthropy when conducted in connection with a 
church. He felt the disparity between such efforts and 
the spiritual results. He saw that the applicant for 
charity would almost certainly be aggrieved and the 
church disappointed if direct spiritual results were the 
chief consideration. He said: 

No church that hoists the flag of relief has resources ade- 
quate to the clamorous requirements of poverty in a great town, 
hence bitter disappointment ensues. The applicants for relief 
feel that somehow they have been deceived. They have asked 
for bread and have been given a stone. . . 

The minister who engages in social work in order to build 
up his own church is doomed to disappointment. The last 
church which a person desires to attend is the one where he 
sought relief and received it. We do not like to revisit scenes 
of past misery. I am inclined to think that institutionalism 
is a handicap to church progress. We are to bend with tender- 
ness over social sores, even when we know that such occupation 
may, in the immediate future, impede, rather than promote, the 
growth of our church. . . 

Our kindness to the people in the nature of the case inclines 
them to be hospitable to the spiritual message which we desire 
to impart. But if we are kind with such an end consciously 
in view, then the quality of our kindness is vitiated. We must 
be kind for its own sweet sake without any ulterior considera- 
tion, or else our kindness loses its essential character. Your 
church institutionalism must not mean being kind to people 
with a view to getting them to join your church. Are you 
kind to a horse in order to get him to join your church? — "The 
Church in Its Social Aspect/' pp. 438, 439. 

Doctor Judson felt that there still remained much 
work for the institutional church to do outside of its 



114 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

earlier philanthropic activities. He helped to define the 
newer social task of the church: 

So far as our work is concerned, we have religious services 
on Sunday and every week-night (including Saturday) summer 
and winter, and parallel with these religious services there is 
something going on every night in the way of physical, mental, 
and social self-improvement, as gymnastic classes for women 
and girls, gymnastic classes for men, gymnastic classes and clubs 
for boys, singing classes, sewing schools, children's hour with 
stereopticon and moving pictures, men's tea on Sunday night, 
young people's literary society, kindergartens, etc. These forms 
of social work we have gradually adopted as meeting urgent 
needs in our own individual field. — " Homiletic Review," 1909. 

The church itself should become socialized as a means 
to spiritual efficiency. 

Take a single narrow case; an average New York boy comes 
to Sunday School once a week, and presumably receives a certain 
impression upon the religious side of his nature. Between the 
Sundays those impressions are washed away from his mind by the 
influences of home and street and school, and at the end of a long 
course through all the grades of the Sunday School, when the 
proper age comes for bidding good-bye to it, as to the day-school, 
his character is the same as at the beginning. The Sundays are 
too far apart efficiently and permanently to mold the child's char- 
acter. But suppose every week you touch the same boy not 
only on a religious side in an effective way at the Sunday School, 
but often and regularly between the Sundays you reach him 
along physical, mental, and social lines by means of a children's 
hour, boys' clubs, gymnastic classes, and other recreative func- 
tions ; his cynicism is gradually subdued, he comes to love and 
respect you, he feels that he has found a friend in you, new 
ideals spring up in his mind, and you are encouraged by seeing 
his whole spirit softened and conciliated. — " The Church in Its 
Social Aspect," page 437. 

In a personal letter about a month before he died he 
said : " What we want to keep in mind is the socialization 
of the Sunday School, by which I mean the shoring up 
of each department by some weekly social function." 
In a still later letter he said : " I see how important all 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET 1 15 

this social work is as it brings the young people within 
our spiritual influence." 

In Doctor Judson's own writings, then, there are 
delineated the two fairly distinct conceptions of church 
institutionalism ; on the one hand, the church as a con- 
geries of philanthropic institutions dealing with men pri- 
marily on the physical and social sides ; on the other hand, 
the socialized church which multiplies points of contact, 
in the faith that there is a contagion of godliness. While 
Doctor Judson saw this, he did not entirely pass from 
one stage of this development into the other. In his 
discussion of " The Church in Its Social Aspect," he 
gives this striking illustration which is as much in line 
with his earlier views as with his later conceptions, and 
does not as clearly state the social tasks of the church as 
the quotation above : 

The social forms through which the church expresses its 
sympathy and compassion are like the soft tentacles which 
some creature of the sea stretches out on every side in order 
to explore the dim element in which it swims, and to draw within 
itself its proper food. The church needs just such organs of 
prehension with which to lay hold upon the community about it. 
The institutional church is a kind of tentacular Christianity. — 
" The Church in Its Social Aspect," page 430. 

In so often reverting to his earlier thought of the 
church as a congeries of philanthropies and in appraising 
his work from this view-point he was always disap- 
pointed, not to be able, on the one hand, to measure 
up to the demands of the poor, and, on the other hand, 
to secure adequate spiritual returns. His own prophecy 
of word and deed prepared the way for the later develop- 
ment, though it was not in direct fulfilment of his 
prophecy, and was indeed a divergence which caused 
him pain. Unquestionably the organization of charitable 
work is promoted by centralization; it is both more 



Il6 EDWARD JUDS0N, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

scientifically efficient and perhaps more economical 
(though it has to build new plants while the churches are 
too much idle). On the other hand, there are serious 
losses. No agency can soften the hand of charity like 
the church. The suffering poor have no such aversion to 
the church as to a hospital or to a dispensary which they 
fear as they do the morgue or the potters' field. " Charity 
which suffereth long, and is kind," when organized needs 
to be translated into " love," for no poor person who is 
the recipient of charity ever thinks of it as either long- 
suffering or kind. Besides, charity that does not kindle 
to new endeavor deadens the moral sensibilities. It is 
at this point that the church is best prepared to serve. 
The therapeutic value of charity is apt to be negligible. 
Moreover, by surrendering its great opportunity to alle- 
viate suffering the Church has eliminated another point 
of contact with those classes from which it has become 
estranged, just as it forfeited a great opportunity when 
one hundred years ago it surrendered to the State the 
schools which it had built up. When the State has be- 
come more democratic and the democracy more Chris- 
tian, the isolation of the Church from the masses now 
intensified by such social changes will not be so marked. 

It is not often that a financial struggle, even to estab- 
lish a great cause, has general or permanent interest; 
but in Edward Judson's effort through long years to build, 
to develop, and to preserve the Judson Memorial there 
was so much of voluntary sacrifice, and such a play of 
feeling, flashing up like heat-lightning on a summer's 
night, that the whole struggle took on a romantic aspect, 
and elicits interest something like Saint George's fight 
with the dragon. Moreover, the shaping of his character 
through struggle and suffering, and his failure to realize 
his social ideals cannot be understood without some ap- 
preciation of this stress. It was a favorite expression of 






■- fcr!5 








i >v lip BEIr < 


flPHH jap— — <ir 

-■ B ^9H BP- ^^m—i 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET WJ 

his, that " Too much finance asphyxiates the soul." It 
never asphyxiated his soul, but it did interfere with the 
soul of his church coming to its fullest expression. 

The appeal for funds to build the Judson Memorial 
was sent broadcast throughout the land. Thousands of 
Sunday School children were asked to give ten cents each. 
Seven hundred and sixty-nine Christian Karens in Burma 
contributed in token of " their unspeakable obligation to 
Adoniram Judson for introducing the gospel " into their 
country and for " giving them the Bible in the language 
of the people." 

The years spent in raising money to build the Memorial 
had none of the disappointments of the effort to free 
the church from debt and to provide means for its 
development. No sooner was the church dedicated than 
the struggle began. In 1891, for the first time in his 
ministry, Doctor Judson was compelled to make an 
urgent appeal to members of his church for additional 
contributions, for " in passing from the old church into 
the new the expenses have necessarily advanced from 
$300 to $500 a month. " Though his resources were too 
scanty for the work in hand, though compelled to make 
wide-spread appeals for his philanthropic and missionary 
work, it was not until he had raised the last of the mort- 
gage indebtedness of the church ($150,000 in 1907) that 
the financial burden began to cut most deeply. Mr. John 
D. Rockefeller contributed $40,000, and the balance of 
$110,000 was secured largely on the annuity plan — the 
church agreeing to pay from five per cent to seven per 
cent to each donor for moneys " contributed " so long as 
he should live, and in many cases an equal or a smaller 
amount to a second annuitant. Though the debt was 
paid the annual charges were increased. Thinking that 
the debt had been canceled, some outside donors reduced 
their contributions. In 1908 Doctor Judson wrote: 



Il8 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Yet in spite of nry best wisdom in expenditures, and although, 
beginning with April, I have cut my own salary $119.44 a month 
so that now I am only receiving $200 per month, and although 
I have besides turned into our treasury $1,500 which I earned 
by lecturing at Union Seminary, and $1,333.33 paid me for 
professional work at Hamilton, and have besides raised all I 
could among my friends, a deficit impends which is costing me 
very great effort to meet. 

He attributed this financial condition in part to the re- 
moval of a large part of his church constituency and 
the coming in their place of Italians and other foreigners, 
or in short to the fact that the field had assumed a more 
distinctly missionary aspect. While he was occupying 
the chair of Homiletics in the Chicago Divinity School, 
the board of trustees of the church felt compelled to 
write him that the church was running behind at the rate 
of $6,000 per year, and that he alone could save the 
situation. He returned and raised the money, but when 
the property was turned over to the New York City 
Baptist Mission Society in 1914 there was a large deficit, 
the accumulation of years of struggle. The most of this 
deficit he was carrying at the time of his death by his 
own personal notes, discounted at a bank. These notes 
had to be renewed from time to time, causing no little 
mental discomfort. 

Few men have had the art of making such financial 
appeals as did he, yet the necessity that lay back of them 
is pathetic. Who would not be pleased to receive such 
correspondence as this? 

Now you see how long an epistle your sympathy has evoked. 
I hope you will forgive me, if I am boring you. But I really 
needed to unburden myself of this "perilous stuff" that has 
occupied my mind too long and too exclusively for my mental 
health and comfort, and if it does you no harm, you have greatly 
helped me in letting me tell you about this rather complicated 
situation. I know that you and your dear brother have too 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET IIQ 

many of other people's financial burdens already to carry, without 
putting your shoulders to my chariot wheels, which seem to be 
driven "heavily" like those of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. 
But your sympathy and counsel, as well as his, are inexpressibly 
prized by me, and while I see no way in which you can lift us 
out of our perplexities, it has already done me a lot of good 
to write you this letter, and it will make me very grateful to 
think that we have a place in your hearts. 

In writing this particular letter he made this inter- 
esting observation on the reason for the last financial 
strain which resulted in the transfer of the property to 
a missionary society : 

Mr. Rockefeller for a long succession of years contributed 
$3,oco a year, holding on so long that I wondered he didn't get 
tired. But the last few years he has dropped off in spite of my 
best persuasions, he having inexorably committed himself to the 
policy of helping individuals and churches only through recog- 
nized denominational agencies. I have reason to believe that he 
let go of me reluctantly, and that I was the last of the Mohicans 
under his old regime. But for all that he was the third leg 
of our tripod, and from the time that he ceased to support we 
have had a deficit of from three to five thousand dollars a year, 
so that now we have a floating debt (if it only would float) of 
nearly $15,000. 

At the beginning of his ministry in New York he 
depended largely on the benevolence of his friend, 
Mr. John H. Deane, to supplement the small amount 
which his church could raise; later he relied upon the 
equally generous support of Mr. John D. Rockefeller. 

He did not undergo this storm and stress for lack of 
other opportunities which would have brought generous 
remuneration. The voluntary element in his sacrifice 
heightens its quality. 

He had a deep conviction that it was bad economy to 
center religious effort upon the more favored classes, 
neglecting those who needed the church most ; that it was 
1 



120 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Not good strategy to focus the heaviest artillery upon the 
weakest point of the enemy's lines, but that the most beautiful 
churches should be placed among the homes of the poor, so that 
it would be only a step from the squalor of the tenement-house 
into a new and contrasted world. 

For these reasons and because he was building a memorial 
to stand, not for a generation, but for centuries, like 
some noble cathedral, he built what architects have called 
the finest piece of church architecture in New York City. 
" Did you not know," said a prominent New York artist to 
the writer, " that the Judson Memorial is the handiwork 
of the three greatest American artists — Stanford White, 
architect ; St. Gaudens, sculptor ; and La Farge, who de- 
signed the windows ? v It is more than a memorial ; it is 
more than fine architecture. It was one of the very 
first churches built in America for social ministry. It is 
churchly, built for worship; institutional, built for min- 
istry; revenue-bearing, built to stay. It embodies in 
itself a well-appointed hotel to serve as a limited endow- 
ment for the philanthropic and missionary work of the 
church — not for ordinary current expense — a distinction 
which Doctor Judson always made. 

He was convinced that such a church must have an en- 
dowment or its work would be insecure. With prophetic 
insight he was building, not for a day, but for genera- 
tions. He said : 

If a church is embedded in a community which is pre- 
dominantly Christian in its spirit, v/here there exists an under- 
lying consciousness that is responsive and congenial to evan- 
gelical truth, then there may be no need of an endowment. 
The ordinary appliances of religion — the Sunday preaching, the 
Sunday School, and the midweek service — may suffice. Enough 
decent churchgoing people will naturally stream in to meet the 
expenses of the establishment. If, however, the church is situated 
in a community the inner consciousness of which is heathenish 
and antagonistic to the gospel, there will spring up the necessity 
of an endowment. 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET 121 

The building of such a plant for social and religious 
work was in itself a big undertaking. The cost of the 
land and buildings at the time of the dedication was ap- 
proximately $400,000, of which $150,000 had been ex- 
pended on the hotel portion of the property — in the nature 
of an endowment. This expenditure was increased later 
to $573>305, principally in the enlargement of the Judson 
Hotel, the erection of the Children's Home at Somer- 
ville, New Jersey, the purchase and improvement of the 
Judson Hotel Annex, and for other property investment. 
Because he was undertaking a type of work which had not 
yet approved itself to any considerable body of churches 
or number of individuals, he was unable to raise adequate 
funds by direct gift. Of the amount expended in the 
property, $358,858 was secured on the annuity plan, in- 
volving very heavy annual charges. This seemed to Doc- 
tor Judson the only way of raising so large a sum. 

A second fundamental difficulty which he had to face 
was that he was appealing for current funds to a con- 
stituency which had not yet drawn the distinction 
between a church which is embedded in a community pre- 
dominantly Protestant and a church located in a com- 
munity that is " heathenish and antagonistic to the gos- 
pel." Christians of no communion had come to recognize 
the religiously neglected " down-town " city district as a 
challenge to the church. The prevailing unsympathetic 
attitude is rather painfully reflected in the following 
letter which Doctor Judson received from the pastor 
of a suburban church who, in his cruel frankness, ex- 
pressed the attitude of thousands who withheld their 
support : 

And now that I have the opportunity, let me frankly say 
what some of my people have urged me more than once to say 
and what others feel. Grand as is the work of the Berean 
Church in New York, broad as its scope, and beneficent as are its 



122 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

charities, we regard the enterprise as purely local, and feel that 
like other local enterprises it ought to depend for support upon 
it§ own field. One or two of my own people have felt slightly 
annoyed by appeals for your general work. 

As a pioneer Doctor Judson had gone beyond the con- 
victions of his denomination as registered in the policies 
of its missionary societies, for such an organization is 
inevitably conservative, being responsive to the convic- 
tions to which the majority of the supporting churches 
have been brought, unless indeed it is led by a pioneer 
strong enough to bring the denomination to his support. 
Edward Judson attempted to* raise a standard, but he 
had to raise it alone with only an occasional Aaron or 
Hur to stay his hands. The failure of the denomination 
to give Doctor Judson adequate assistance in his severe 
struggles did not deter him from presenting to the local 
denominational organization, the New York City Baptist 
Mission Society, the accumulations of his life of mission- 
ary effort, embodied in the Judson Memorial Church, 
hotel, and children's home, costing $573,305, valued by 
him at $750,000, though encumbered at the time of the 
transfer with an indebtedness of approximately $167,000. 
He often said that the life of an institution is longer than 
that of a man. For this reason institutions become social 
conservators. 

It was not until the ideals for which he had striven 
had percolated into the consciousness of the denomina- 
tion and been accepted by it, that it became possible for 
his church to receive support through any denominational 
organization. That day did not come, unfortunately, until 
his strength had broken. He had hoped to receive the 
personal support of well-to-do people living in the suburbs 
or up-town, but was largely disappointed. " So many 
have left my side," he said, " that I find myself when I 
part with persons in the street, unconsciously taking a 



THE SOCIAL PROPHET I23 

long and lingering look at them lest I should not see them 
again." 

Moses did not live to see the children of Israel enter 
the promised land, but that land was entered. The ex- 
periences in the wilderness then came to their fruition. 
That faith which Edward Judson had in the ultimate 
triumph of the good and to a hardly less degree in the 
institution to which he gave the best years of his life, 
has come into fruitage since his death in the enlargement 
of the work itself along the lines inaugurated by him 
and in the preservation of the property of the Memorial 
Church. As these pages go to press a fund of $300,000 is 
being raised through the free-will offerings of many thou- 
sands in nearly every State in the Union to free the 
church from debt — a task already largely accomplished — 
and to perpetuate the work of Edward Judson. Had this 
popular response to his prophetic call come a score of 
years earlier, his life might have been spared and the 
ideals for which he struggled have found an earlier and 
perhaps a larger embodiment. 

These words of Edward Judson are prophetic of the 
triumph of the ideals for which he stood. In the lines 
of Matthew Arnold he foretold his own martyrdom, nor 
did he cease to charge till he had fallen " by the wall." 

When the glowing lava of thought has once grown cold, having 
crystallized itself into mischievous institutional forms, it is hard 
to melt it all over again and start anew. That is why a single 
lifetime is usually inadequate to the task of carrying through a 
reform. At least two lifetimes have to be spliced together. As 
Matthew Arnold states it : 

"Charge once more then, and be dumb; 
Let the victors when they come, 
When the forts of folly fall, 
Find thy body by the wall." 



VII 

INTERPRETER OF GOD 

Religion is imparted by social infection. It is one of the 
secrets in that change of mental poise which has been fittingly 
named conversion, that to many among us neither heaven nor 
earth has any revelation till some personality touches ours with 
a peculiar influence subduing us into receptivity. — Edward Judson. 

THESE pages have been devoted mainly to a portrayal 
of Edward Judson's contribution to educational, 
social, and religious progress as teacher, writer, pastor 
and preacher, and social pioneer and prophet. 

During the working period of his life, a span of almost 
fifty years, from graduation from Brown University in 
1865 almost to the day of his death, on October 23, 1914, 
he was busily employed as principal of the Leland Semi- 
nary at Townshend, Vermont, from 1865 to 1866; as in- 
structor and professor at Madison (Colgate) University, 
from 1866 to 1873; as pastor of the North Orange Bap- 
tist Church, from 1874 to 188 1 ; as pastor of the Berean 
Baptist Church and its successor, the Memorial Church, 
from 1881 to the time of his death. 

The last year of his life was marked by singular provi- 
dences. " One of the pleasures of growing old is that we 
see our past life in perspective. We become aware 
that, all unconsciously to ourselves, it has been shaped to- 
ward definite ends by our heavenly Father's molding 
hand," he once said. 

Nineteen hundred thirteen was the centennial year 
of the beginning of his father's mighty achievement. 
He joyously participated in the festivities. His presence 
124 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 1 25 

was desired at the centennial celebration in Burma, but 
the conditions of his health forbade. The Rangoon 
" Gazette," on Friday., December 12, 1913, gave this 
record of the meeting of Wednesday the tenth : 

At this point the Rev. W. H. S. Hascall read a cablegram 
which he had just received from Dr. Edward Judson in New 
York, the youngest son of Doctor Judson, sent on December 
tenth. It read, "Centennial greetings: Revelation 11 : 15." The 
reading was received with cheers. The chairman then read the 
verse referred to in the cable, which reads : " And the seventh 
angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven saying, 
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." 

At the precise hour of this service there was held in 
the Memorial Church in New York City a service of 
prayer and thanksgiving, conducted by Edward Judson. 
The Rangoon " Gazette " records that on Thursday after- 
noon: 

Previous to his address, the chairman read the following 
drafted reply to the cablegram received from Dr. Edward Judson 
on Wednesday, which is as follows : " Dr. Edward Judson, New 
York City, greeting : 3 John 2." This verse reads : " Beloved, I 
wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, 
even as thy soul prospereth." The meeting unanimously approved 
of the sending of such a cablegram. 

Doctor Judson had among his cherished keepsakes the 
original of this cablegram. There was also published 
in Rangoon an extended letter from Doctor Judson, for 
as Doctor Hascall wrote on December 13, " We thought 
all should come into personal touch with you at this 
time." 

The friends of Edward Judson desired an opportunity 
to break the alabaster cruse of friendship and esteem. 
Under the leadership of the Rev. Cornelius Woelfkin, 
D. D., the Rev. J. Madison Hare, and others, such an 
opportunity was afforded to a host of his friends. It took 



126 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

the form of a dinner held at Sherry's, New York, Decem- 
ber 18, 1913. The Brooklyn " Daily Eagle " on the nine- 
teenth gave this report : 

Coincident with the Judson centenary celebration in Burma, 
which began several days ago, a dinner was given in honor 
of the great missionary, Adoniram Judson, and to pay homage 
to his son, the Rev. Edward Judson, for more than thirty years 
a prominent pastor in Manhattan, in the great dining-hall of 
Sherry's, Fifth Avenue and Forty-fourth Street, last night. 
Brooklyn, Manhattan, the neighboring cities — Philadelphia, Bos- 
ton, and other New England places — and cities far away were 
represented in the diners, ministers, and laymen and laywomen. 
Altogether, five hundred sat down. 

Every mention of the name of Judson brought forth applause. 

Sitting at the guest-table were: Bishop David H. Greer, rep- 
resenting the Episcopal denomination; the Rev. Frank Mason 
North, secretary of the Foreign Mission Society of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church; the Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, pastor of 
the Broadway Tabernacle, representing the Congregationalists ; 
the Rev. U. G. Wenner, representing the Lutherans; Dr. Robert 
E. Speer, one of the secretaries of the Foreign Mission Board 
of the Presbyterian Church ; and the Rev. Emory W. Hunt, D. D., 
secretary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 

Doctor Woelfkin read letters from Mr. John D. Rockefeller, 
Supreme Court Justice Hughes, and the Rev. W. H. P. Faunce, 
D. D., President of Brown University. 

At the close Doctor Woelfkin paid a tribute to Dr. Adoniram 
Judson and to his distinguished son, and presented to the guest 
of the evening a purse of $1,000 in gold. Doctor Judson re- 
sponded briefly and feelingly to all the kind words said about his 
father and about himself, and closed the dinner with prayer and 
benediction, the large company joining in the Lord's Prayer. 

This was regarded as the most significant social event 
in Baptist circles within the recollection of those who 
attended. That this tribute of affection was warmly 
appreciated by Doctor Judson was shown in a character- 
istic remark after the dinner. The writer expressed the 
hope that the evening had not been overtaxing. He re- 
plied, " This is not the kind of thing that kills men." 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 1 27 

Unfortunately, he had experienced too many of those 
things which do kill and too few of those which this 
dinner supplied. 

The following evening a more informal service was 
held at the Memorial Church, when his friends spoke 
without restraint of their love and appreciation. At 
this meeting, on motion of Mr. D. G. Garabrant, of 
Bloomfield, New Jersey, the appointment of a committee 
was authorized to ascertain what could be done to relieve 
Doctor Judson of the financial strain which was shorten- 
ing his life. (Reference has already been made to the 
work of this committee.) 

Following the celebration in Burma, and culminating 
in the centennial in Boston, in June, 19 14, scores of cen- 
tennial meetings were held, at which Edward Judson gave 
notable addresses on his father's life. 

The culmination of the Judson Centennial Celebration 
was on June 24 and 25, in connection with the annual 
meetings of the Northern Baptist Convention held in 
Boston. On Wednesday afternoon, the twenty- fourth, 
the important session was held. In introducing Doctor 
Judson, President Henry Bond said : 

We love him for what the name stands for that he bears, 
we love him for the blood that he has in his veins, and we love 
him for what he is himself — Dr. Edward Judson, of New York. 

In the official report is this record of the " ovation to 
Edward Judson " : 

This was the signal for such an outburst o£ recognition as 
is seldom witnessed in any gathering. The supreme moment of 
the celebration had come. If Edward Judson ever doubted 
whether the denomination appreciated his character and spirit, 
his devotion not less persistent than that of his father to the 
cause in which he believed, and his eminently lovable qualities, 
he could have no doubt of it from this hour. He had been 
greeted with great applause when he first came to the platform ; 



128 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

but now, as he rose and stepped to the side of the president, he 
received an ovation. The congregation rose, gave him the Chau- 
tauqua salute, cheered ; then, after sitting down, broke into wave 
after wave of applause, so that all he could do was to stand 
there and smile . . . overcome with a feeling of wonder at such 
a tribute ... to his father, of whom he was the special repre- 
sentative by reason of his calling and work. How simply he 
began, yet how characteristically, when the people gave him a 
chance to be heard. You will read the address in full elsewhere, 
but the opening words may well be given here also: 

"President Bond, Brethren, Sisters, Fathers, Mothers, Young 
Men and Women who are going as missionaries, you Veterans 
who have returned from distant fields, 

" ' Hearts worn out with many wars 

And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot stars.' 

" I count it the supreme honor and joy of my life to be per- 
mitted to speak a benedictory word on this historic occasion 
under the auspices of the Northern Baptist Convention in the 
presence of this assemblage of representative Christians gathered 
from all sections of our great land to pay a tribute of affectionate 
remembrance to my father, Adoniram Judson, the first American 
foreign missionary." 

When Doctor Judson had concluded, the audience again 
expressed its appreciation of the address and affection 
for the man. When a pause came, President Bond said : 

Doctor Judson, would that I could give you some adequate 
conception of the appreciation of this audience, and not only of 
this audience, but of the Baptists from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
of the lives of men like your father and yourself. But until 
the books are opened, it can never be known, and when the 
record is read there, then can be understood, and not until then, 
our appreciation of the life of these men. 

The Rev. Frank M. Goodchild, D. D., of New York, 
in his convention address said : 

The only celebration of the Judsons' doings that is much 
worth while is that we shall resolve to finish the work in Burma 
which they so heroically began, and for which in wearing out 
their lives they "gave the last full measure of devotion," and 



INTERPRETER OF GOD I 29 

that we thus determine that those souls "shall not have died 
in vain." 

And we might well supplement that by resolving before God 
to make perpetual in lower New York the work which Dr. 
Edward Judson has so well begun as a memorial to his father. 

At these meetings Doctor Judson was elected Honorary 
President for life of the American Baptist Foreign Mis- 
sion Society. Doctor Judson's friends were profoundly 
grateful that he lived to receive these altogether sincere 
and thoroughly deserved tributes. 

Already the dark shadows were beginning to settle. 
The Northern Baptist Convention, at its meeting in June, 
had taken cognizance of the serious illness of Mrs. Jud- 
son, and had sent Doctor Judson a note of sympathy. 
The writer chanced to be at Doctor Judson's Hamilton 
home one evening in May, 19 14. Returning that night 
from a trip in the interest of his work, Doctor Judson 
found that Mrs. Judson had been ordered by her physi- 
cian to New York. She was never permitted to return. 
As late as the sixth of August he wrote to the writer: 
" Yes, Mrs. Judson is getting along a little better. We 
still hope to see her here before the summer is over." 
That hope was never realized, for Mrs. Judson passed 
away on September 20. 

Mrs. Judson was a woman of refined tastes, keen in- 
tellectual ability, quick but rather restrained sympathies, 
fine social feeling, and very deep reserve. In the small 
inner circle in which she was known she excited a re- 
markable admiration. From personal acquaintance with 
her the writer can appreciate the truth of the following 
tribute written after her death to Doctor Judson by an 
old friend of both : 

I admired Mrs. Judson greatly, and I have never ceased to 
admire her. I remember the brilliant flashes in her conversation, 
not infrequently edged with satire. I remember how individual 



I30 EDWARD JUDSOX, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

her opinions were, and how vigorously she defended them. I 
remember her unswerving loyalty to her friends. I remember 
how invariably she took up the cudgels for the under-dog. I 
remember how unsparing she was in helping a friend in need. . . 

Mrs. Judson exerted a powerful influence over me. Few 
people that I have met in this world have influenced me so 
powerfully. Possibly Mrs. Judson would be surprised to know 
this. And her influence did more than I can tell to broaden my 
horizon and enlarge my understanding of life. . . 

Mrs. Judson possessed one of the most intensely individual 
personalities that I have ever known. It was a personality like 
attar of roses in its intensity — and, to me, in its charm. 

She entered heartily into the educational and social work 
of the church, particularly that which aimed to benefit 
women and girls. Year after year she played the piano 
practically every night at the Daily Service of Prayer. 
She directed the sewing school and the large gymnasium 
classes for women and girls, which were among the 
most successful educational experiments undertaken by 
the church. 

Perhaps it was because Doctor Judson's body was so 
keenly responsive to his soul that gradually the burden 
which he could not carry, but which he would not lay 
down, took its toll from his strength. 

After Airs. Judson's death he endeavored to take up 
his appointed tasks, but his whole manner was marked 
by a deep depression which was not characteristic of 
him. He remarked to the writer one day while walking 
across town: "Well, I suppose you feel that I am 
rather pessimistic these days ; perhaps the woods will do 
something for me." Soon after he sought the seclusion 
of Temogami and Emerald Lake — fifty miles from the 
nearest approach of civilization's busy carriers. Like 
Antaeus, he had learned to renew his strength by con- 
tact with nature. When, on the nineteenth of October, a 
letter was received, closing with " I found a good deal 



INTERPRETER OF GOD I3I 

of resiliency growing around in the woods and brought 
some home with me," the writer felt that Doctor Judson 
had in mind his earlier remark, and that he had found 
what he sought. 

At a luncheon conference on Tuesday, the twenty-first 
of October, he was optimistic and his outlook was hope- 
ful — nature's solitude had been his soul's solace. He 
talked of his plans to develop his own work and to assist 
in raising the fund to free the Judson Memorial from debt. 
The only anxiety he showed was in connection with the 
floating indebtedness of the church — the renewal of cer- 
tain notes. With characteristic graciousness he urged the 
writer to meet him each day if possible at the Judson 
Hotel for luncheon, but it was his own last luncheon 
there. That afternoon he presided at the regular monthly 
meeting of the New York Baptist City Mission Society, 
of which he had been president for five years, and offered 
the closing prayer. This was his last public religious ser- 
vice. The following day he attended a luncheon meet- 
ing of the Sigma Chi. He closed the discussion of the 
paper of the day with these familiar words : 

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
It came again with a great wakening light, 
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 

As he spoke he was smitten with a heart attack. On 
Friday he rallied, but suddenly passed away. 

A simple inscription marks the resting-place of his 
earthly tabernacle in the ground consecrated by the 
prayers of thirteen devout men — the little college bury- 
ing-plot on the hill back of Colgate University at Hamil- 
ton, New York. His real monument is the beautiful struc- 
ture on Washington Square at the foot of Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. Built by him as a memorial to his 



132 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

father, it is a memorial to the son, expressive in its 
architecture of his artistic soul, in its endowment features 
of Jiis practical sense, in its facilities for ministry of his 
social passion, and in its central thought of worship of his 
devotion. 

Doctor Judson is survived by his two daughters, Sarah 
Elizabeth and Margaret, the latter of whom has held 
the position of dean of women at Denison University, 
and is at present associate professor of English in Vassar 
College. He is survived also by his brother Henry, of 
whom Doctor Judson at the Centennial in Boston said: 

The oldest of the three babes left in Burma was my brother 
Henry, three years older than myself. We had hoped that he 
could be with us to-day. I hold in my hand the ticket admitting 
him to this platform. But sickness imperatively prevented his 
coming. Indeed, he was permanently disabled while fighting 
under the Union flag in the Civil War. 

The fitting tribute to Edward Judson at the Judson 
Centennial in Burma, the recognition dinner in New 
York City, the ovation at the Centennial in Boston, and 
the enthusiastic welcome of scores of churches were 
more than marks of esteem for the son of the honored 
pioneer of foreign missions. They were loving tributes 
paid to one who had achieved a noble character and 
done a notable work — a work as distinctive as that of 
his father — a recognition that he had to a high degree 
reincarnated those attributes which in Christ the world 
first learned to call Christian; that he had indeed suc- 
ceeded in his main life effort to be a Christian, and to 
that degree had glorified those qualities through which, 
in Christ, God had made his supreme interpretation to 
man; and that thereby he had become an interpreter of 
God. 

Edward Judson saw that the incarnation is the divine 
concession to the inability of man to comprehend the 




EDWARD JUDSON 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 133 

teaching of God as revealed by seers and prophets, and 
to enter his presence when led only by priests. He saw 
that those qualities which we have come to know as 
Christian virtues — the teachable spirit, the spirit of 
humility, the forgiving spirit, the spirit of simplicity, 
transparency of life and motive, compassion for suffer- 
ing, and the essential oneness of human life — could be 
demonstrated only in life itself; that the divine method 
of demonstration was by the incarnation of God in 
Christ — the transformation of humanity by divinity; that 
the " Word became flesh," that " God was in Christ," 
that we have a Christlike God. 

He saw that in communities in which the knowledge 
of the supreme incarnation of God in Jesus Christ has 
been obscured by an elaborate ritualism if not totally lost 
in blind traditionalism, where sacramentarianism has dis- 
placed religion, there the incarnation must be made in- 
telligible by a reincarnation of the teachable spirit, the 
spirit of humility, the forgiving spirit, the spirit of sim- 
plicity, and the spirit of sympathy; that the spirit of 
Christ must become flesh and dwell with man ; that men 
must become " complete in him," interpreters of God 
through Christ; that the "marvel of the mystery of the 
incarnation of God in Christ " must be " repeated in 
human history and experience." 

To him the incarnation was fundamental. This is 
brought out clearly in his lecture on " The Religion of 
Matthew Arnold." He said of Matthew Arnold : 

He missed God, revealed to us in Christ, who is declared by 
the apostle to be the express image of the divine Person. Can- 
not such a God be verified by experience as truly as a God 
that makes for righteousness ? The incarnation, if we once accept 
it, is the resolvent of all anthropomorphic difficulties. " I believe 
in God, and in prayer, but not in Christ." To what do you pray? 
Without the incarnation we worship only a creature of our own 



134 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

manufacture. We cannot conceive of any being above man, just 
as a dog can only think in dog terms. To him a man is only 
another dog — the leader of the pack — an elongated dog. The 
evidence of this is that when he is gnawing a musty bone and 
you approach him, he will growl, thinking that you want his 
bone. If we try to imagine an angel, he is, after all, only a 
man with bird's wings. And so, when the heathen make a 
god, it is either a man or a beast or a conglomerate of the two. 
Why then does it seem strange that God should foreshorten him- 
self within the range of our comprehension, that we may ap- 
proach him in prayer? Christ in his own life and character 
transcends the largest conception of the divine which the human 
mind can form. In molding bullets you put lead into an iron 
ladle, and liquefy it over a fire. Then you pour the molten 
mass into a small mold. Some of the lead fills the mold, some 
overflows, and falls on the floor, while some still remains in 
the ladle. Now, if you will, form the largest conception you can 
of Deity — a being infinitely wise, strong, and loving — and then 
using this conception as a mold, if you pour into it the historic 
character of Jesus Christ, just as he is described in the four 
Gospels, you will find that it will more than fill the mold full. 
" If you believe in God, believe in me." 

The great fact of the reincarnation of Christ in man 
is fundamental in church institutionalism. " Only a life 
which has been hid with Christ in God can communicate 
spiritual energy." The wealth of an institutional church 
is not its equipment, nor indeed its material income, but 
the wealth of personality invested — lives " hid with Christ 
in God " in contact with needy ones. 

Edward Judson's first concern was to make a success 
of himself, to incarnate in his own life the Christ spirit ; 
to become in some degree an interpreter of God. 

His intimate talks with his students revealed the high 
standard which he had set for himself as a Christian 
minister. His lecture notes are given with here and 
there a word substituted, to complete a sentence, because 
they form a kind of autobiography — a more familiar pic- 
ture than the writer would have ventured to give. 



interpreter of god i 35 

The Making of the Minister. Edward Judson's 
Lecture Notes 

The minister's symmetrical self-development, with a view to 
social expression, and efficiency in service is the general theme of 
this course of lectures. Christ's character and purpose fixed for 
him the minister's highest ideal. 

Christ's nature was intensely social. 

" A being not too bright and good, 
For human nature's daily food." 

He was not a student. He resorted to frequented places ; loved 
to be jostled by the crowd; took his promenades among the 
fishing-smacks along the shore of the Lake of Galilee. He loved 
to mingle with working men and little children. 

" And so the Word had breath, and wrought 
With human hands the creed of creeds 
In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
More strong than all poetic thought; 

" Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
And those wild eyes that watch the wave 
In roarings round the coral reef." 

He was the originator of a social organism — not an author, 
not an artist, not a philosopher. His disciples were his family — 
his book. There is both difficulty and joy in producing a social 
organism, in making our thoughts objective, in freezing our 
thoughts into metal. 

Bergson makes a fine distinction between joy and pleasure: 
the artist makes money and has pleasure, but his joy is in creating. 

The essential ministry is characterized by spiritual helpfulness. 
According to a Hindu proverb, a young plant should always be 
protected by a fence from the mischief of goats and cows ; but 
when it once becomes a big tree, a flock of sheep or a herd of 
cows may find shelter under its spreading branches and fill their 
stomachs with its leaves. 

" Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 
And be a friend to man. 
K 



I36 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

" And he was dear to men ; for he befriended them all, 
Living in a house by the side of the road." 

Every- Christian is a minister, or one in the making. There 
is no such thing in the Scriptures as holy orders; the universal 
priesthood of believers is taught. There is infinite mischief in 
an organized priesthood. There is crying need of a lay ministry. 
Much of the work we do could be done by laymen, and will 
finally be done by them. 

The technical ministry is dependent upon the essential min- 
istry. There is need of intelligent response and cooperation from 
the pew. The tendency is to make technical ministers of intel- 
ligent and consecrated laymen — exhausting the pews in the in- 
terest of the pulpit. One should enter the technical ministry 
only under pressure, having the " woe is me " feeling. 

The minister is a leader in the church ; he tends " the flock of 
God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of con- 
straint, but willingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy 
lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as lording it over the charge 
allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock" 
(1 Peter 5 : 2, 3, R. V.). 

The man is more than his work : " If any man's work shall 
abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any 
man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself 
shall be saved; yet so as through fire" (1 Cor. 3 : 14, 15, R. V.). 

There should be a symmetrical development of our quadrilateral 
nature. "And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in 
favor with God and men" (Luke 2 : 52, R. V.). Do not have 
the weakness of a one-sided development. The rounded man 
counts most in modern civilization, a man who has no soft spots. 
Great results are achieved by combination. Individualism be- 
longs to a lower civilization. 

In the ministry there is opportunity for self-development with 
an altruistic end. At first blush this is a refined selfishness; but 
the highest egoism and the purest altruism are identical. 

The minister should have bodily health. Christ was a carpenter. 
He ate simple food — fish, bread, olives, wine. He lived in the 
open air, and took long walks. There is no mention of his having 
any sickness. The body nailed to the cross was a sound, healthy 
body. He held the body in honor. He condemned asceticism. 
He did not regard the body as a clog. Flesh does not mean 
muscular tissue, but the evil nature ; the world, not this beautiful 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 137 

earth, but men and things opposed to God. Let us not always 
say: 

" Spite of this body to-day, 
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole. 
As the bird wings and sings, 
Let us cry : All good things 
Are ours ; not soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul." 

The strains of ministerial life are severe. They involve: 
Keeping appointments, racing from one engagement to another; 
climbing stairs, taking long walks, catching public conveyances. 
There are occasions of special excitement. Calmness comes from 
health. Crystals dissolve in the slow acid of time. Outlive your 
competitors and opponents. Success resides in longevity and 
good behavior. Fret not thy gizzard. 

The conditions of bodily health are first, food. We are what 
we eat. Seek food that contains all the elements needed for 
repairing the waste tissue. Alcoholic stimulants give no nourish- 
ment and prod the heart. Total abstinence is the only safe 
course. Eat enough, but not too much. There is danger both 
of being ill-nourished and of overeating. Have a diet for each 
day. 

Ventilation is vital. Ventilate your room after study and before 
going to bed. Breathe through the nostrils. If you find your 
mouth open, get right up and shut it. Look out for intake and 
vent. In building a church, provide ventilatory apparatus. 

Cleanliness is essential. Take time to be clean. Be well 
groomed. Learn the relation of teeth to health, public speaking, 
and social life. Clean hands are noticeable. Give attention to 
nails (in private). Keep hair neatly trimmed and brushed, and 
a healthy scalp. 

Take exercise once a day for symmetrical development. Take 
time for play and for fun. 

Social health is important, for religion is imparted by social 
infection. Cultivate social charm. Other things being equal, 
your power in winning souls will be measured by your capacity 
to inspire affection and respect. Get people to love you if you 
want to do them good. Independence is a condition of social 
health. " Not that I speak in respect of w T ant; for I have learned, 
in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content. I know how 
to be abased, and I know also how to abound ; in everything and 



I38 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to 
be hungry, both to abound and to be in want" (Phil. 4 : 11, 
12, R. V v ). 

Do not be an incubus or a leaning tree. One of the besetting 
sins of the ministerial life is to think that the world owes 
us a living, that we can pay board by good behavior. It is such 
an attitude that leads many to consider that the ministry is not 
a manly profession and that makes our good unpalatable. The 
beneficiary system is justifiable, but it tests the moral fiber. Being 
exempt from wage-earning toil leads to the impression that one 
is an object of charity. Such an impression must be lived down. 
Contract for salary, but be grateful for favors and reciprocate. 
Do not take the attitude that " the world owes me a living," but 
rather " I will make myself indispensable." Do not lean on others, 
but let others lean upon us. But the extreme of independence, 
on the other hand, alienates. It makes people love us when we 
permit them to do things for us. In this we may follow the 
example of Jesus who let people do things for him. Avoid debt. 

Association with refined people is essential to social health. 
No one will tell us our social faults. We must follow the law 
of imitation. We unconsciously become like those with whom 
we associate. Cultivate acquaintance with the most refined people 
of the town. Give some evenings to society. Cultivate some 
social accomplishment. Associate with women, refined women, 
but not to the exclusion of men. 

Courtesy — kindness in little things should be habitually exer- 
cised. Refined manners should be cultivated at home and 
abroad — in the parlor and at the table and everywhere ; scrupulous 
observance of the countless little conventionalities that make 
up civilized life; tender regard for the feelings of others, espe- 
cially of those of low degree; a nice sense of honor that keeps 
without fail every promise and engagement; such deference for 
others that one will not monopolize the conversation, or always 
talk shop, or tell old or pointless or vulgar or irreverent stories, 
or speak unkindly of the absent, especially of our brother minis- 
ters ; these are some of the constituent parts of that personal 
culture without which our public homilies are apt to fall upon 
unresponsive soil. 

Attention should be given to pulpit manners. The manner in 
the pulpit should be marked by deliberateness. There is value in 
pauses; speaking to those farthest away; have neither stiffness 
nor lounging; sit with legs uncrossed; stand erect without air 



INTERPRETER OF GOD I 39 

of defiance, one foot behind the other; look people in the eye 
for the inspiration of it ; have an attitude of conciliation, a 
pleasant look, not a threatening aspect, nor too solemn. Keep 
a sweet temper, even when there are disturbances in worship, 
baby crying, whispering, a person coughing, people coming in 
late, or people falling asleep. Acquire the gift of praising instead 
of blaming. 

Spiritual health is dependent upon communion with Christ, 
abiding in the consciousness of the presence and love of Christ; 
not our love to Christ, but his love to us. " Grow in the grace 
and the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The 
grace of Christ and the knowledge of Christ constitute the soil 
in which we grow like a plant. Grace is the love of a superior 
to an inferior — a love that comes down. Grace is love extended 
to one who not only does not deserve it, but has done much to 
forfeit it. By dwelling in the consciousness of this love and be- 
coming more and more acquainted with Christ, as friend with 
friend, we grow. The Holy Spirit is Christ himself present to 
the believer. " I will not leave you orphans : I come unto you." 
Christ is the human spirit's guardian angel. It requires imagina- 
tion for us to be aware of the presence of a Being whom we 
cannot see with the eyes of flesh. But the imagination has facts 
to work with. There can be no religion, or even morality, with- 
out imagination. How can a man keep the Golden Rule without 
imagination enough to put himself in the place of the other 
man ? Spiritual health is conditioned upon our habitually abiding 
in the consciousness of the presence and love of Christ, dwelling 
in him, as the tiny goldfish in its watery environment, or a branch 
in a vine, or a slave in the master, or a wife in a husband. 

Abiding in Christ is the very core of religion — not orthodoxy, 
not philanthropy, not ritual, not organization. Like a prisoner 
in the dark cell, who hears the kind, reassuring voice of the 
chaplain in the room above, who says, " I will stay here as 
long as you are confined in the dark cell." The darkness then 
seems all dispersed. 

Edward Judson sought systematically to develop his 
whole nature — physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual. 
Though a sickly babe deprived of a mother's care, a deli- 
cate youth entrusted to strangers, he grew into strength 
of physical manhood with a body splendidly developed 



I40 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

and disciplined to obey a steady will. Diet and exercise 
were reduced to a kind of daily ritual. He was fond of 
outdoor life, delighting in the canoe and the camp, loving 
to fish and to hunt, and to take vacations, not at a seaside 
resort, but in trackless wilds, in nature's solitude. Re- 
garding his physical strength his brother, Dr. Adoniram 
Judson, made this statement a short time before his 
own death : 

Through boyhood and early manhood his bright mind, per- 
sonal attractiveness, and strong ambition easily made him a 
welcome leader. He was never deficient in physical examination. 
In many observations with the spirometer, an instrument for 
determining the capacity of the chest, I never found any one 
to excel him. Zealous in sport with rod and gun, each season 
found him on the trail in the wild woods. 

His social health was reflected in his perfect urbanity. 
He had social charm and ease of manner under every cir- 
cumstance. His delicate attention to small matters of 
personal habit enhanced his personal attractiveness. He 
avoided economic dependence. Early in life he resolved 
to live on a little less than his salary, and always did 
so, but he never allowed himself to become involved in 
business matters for personal gain. Like a surgeon, he 
kept his hands antiseptically clean — to use one of his own 
illustrations. At one time he declined the opportunity 
to make an investment of a modest sum which gave prom- 
ise of large future returns — a promise more than justi- 
fied by later events. He was scrupulous in all financial 
matters. All funds for the church and its varied missions 
were acknowledged, deposited, and drawn upon by a 
chartered public accountant, the paid treasurer of the 
church, and all business affairs of the church were under 
the guidance of a lawyer of recognized standing who 
gave his services without remuneration. Doctor Judson 
voluntarily remitted to the church his earnings from his 



INTERPRETER OF GOD I4I 

teachings, his lectures, addresses, and occasional sermons, 
aggregating some years as much as his salary. 

He found delight in social intercourse. He was a mem- 
ber of the Century Club, the Philothean Society, and the 
Sigmi Chi, both of the latter organizations of clergymen. 
In college he joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He 
took special pleasure in college associations, but his prin- 
cipal social enjoyment was found in his family circle and 
in his church. Few men have been more habitually kind 
than he — to his associates and personal friends, but no 
less to the lowly. He observed his own teachings in mat- 
ters of courtesy. 

He had remarkable capacity for friendship. Ever a 
welcomed guest, men liked to have him near ; he radiated 
good cheer and cleared the air for a good outlook. The 
"Watchman-Examiner" said of him: 

We doubt if there has been a man among us during the past 
generation so universally loved and respected as Doctor Judson. 

Dr. William M. Lawrence, almost a lifelong associate, 
gave this testimony and characterization : 

Probably no name and no face were more familiar to the 
Baptists of America than were the name and face of Edward 
Judson. Nor need this statement be confined to the denomina- 
tion of which he was so eminent a representative. He was 
known and beloved by thousands of people connected with other 
churches. 

He loved the birds and brooks. He loved the fields. He loved 
the solitude of the woods. He loved the sports. He had a keen 
relish for the heart of nature. Even the birds seemed to know 
him. Animals were fond of him. He loved men, but he loved 
the creatures God brought into the world to be the companions 
of men. I used to think that his mirth was never more free 
and his wit was never more apparent than when he was petting 
some animal that had made its home on his grounds. 

Doctor Lawrence has said also that he never knew Doc- 
tor Judson to speak unkindly of another minister, that 



142 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

because of his wholesome influences he was especially 
welcome at his family table. 

Delicately refined in his manner, observant of social 
conventions, keen in understanding, tender in sympathies, 
quick in service, concealing his heart throes, these words 
of which he was fond may be applied to him: 

But thou wouldst not alone 
Be saved, my father! alone 
Conquer and come to thy goal, 
Leaving the rest in the wild. 
We were weary, and we 
Fearful, and we in our march 
Fain to drop down and to die. 
Still thou turnedst, and still 
Beckonedst the trembler, and still 
Gavest the weary thy hand. 
If, in the paths of the world, 
Stones might have wounded thy feet 
Toil or dejection have tried 
Thy spirit, of that we saw 
Nothing: to us thou wast still 
Cheerful, and helpful, and firm ! 
Therefore to thee it was given 
Many to save with thyself ; 
And, at the end of thy day, 
O faithful shepherd ! to come, 
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. 

We know of no one whose life more expressed the senti- 
ment : " Life is neither a pain nor a pleasure, but a seri- 
ous business which it is our duty to carry through and 
terminate with honor." He had large capacity both 
for pain and pleasure, just how large only his intimate 
friends could know, but neither took him from his ap- 
pointed course. With all his gentleness of manner, so- 
cial charm, scholarly diversions, and delight in quiet re- 
treats, he never forgot the serious business of his life, 
which he carried through and terminated with honor. 



INTERPRETER OF GOD I 43 

He was mentally industrious and exact in his scholar- 
ships. He was always a student, whether in daily language 
study; in university classroom, following a wide range 
of thought; with magazine writers, the best of whose 
works he carefully filed; or in a study of the poets and 
hymn-writers, of whose work he had a discriminating ap- 
preciation. While not musical, he knew the best com- 
posers of church music, and industriously cultivated the 
use of classical hymns. 

Progressive in thought, he was irenic in spirit and never 
destructive in criticism. He felt the necessity of recon- 
ciling changing human thought and varying human ex- 
periences with the eternal realities, even though this 
should involve a keen mental struggle and sometimes a 
spiritual anguish. He said, " There is hardly any men- 
tal pain so exquisite as to feel long-cherished belief slip- 
ping out of your grasp." 

His faith was vital, growing out of a living experience. 
He said: 

The true orthodoxy consists not so much in trying to hold with 
limp and trembling hand a whole vast system of tenuously 
articulated dogmas, as in realizing for one's self in a deep and 
personal way the few essentials that lie at the very center of 
Christianity, leaving the rest to come along in time as corollary. 
Faith is not cast; it grows. . . 

The better way is to seize upon a few central truths con- 
tained in Christianity that seem sweetly reasonable, such as the 
existence of God and his beneficence, as even Renan puts it in 
one of his last lectures : " One thing only is certain ; it is that 
the fatherly smile at certain hours shines across Nature and 
assures us that there is an eye looking at us, and a heart which 
follows us." God's Fatherhood, especially as personalized and 
envisaged in Christ, makes good material for a working hypoth- 
esis of life, and we soon learn to relate it to other Christian 
truths, as shipwrecked mariners, marooned on some desert 
island, lash logs together into a rude raft that bears them up 
as they push out upon the open sea. Faith is the disposition 



144 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

in the realm of religion to act upon probability. There can be 
no such thing as mathematical demonstration in religion. 

He was robust in his spiritual health. His knowledge 
of Christ was the soil in which he grew like a fruitful 
plant. His life was " hid with Christ in God." He took 
time " to be holy " in the true sense of that word. He 
had peculiar joy in regarding the recorded words of 
Christ as spoken for his own personal guidance and 
consolation. He seemed ever conscious of the reassuring 
words of his Lord. He built his life upon his daily 
Bible study and private devotion. On the basis of a 
triumphant faith he had the poise and serenity of spirit 
attributed to the stars by these well-known lines : 

Unaffrighted by the silence round them, 

Undistracted by the sights they see, 
These demand not that the things without them 

Yield them love, amusement, sympathy. 

And with joy the stars perform their shining, 
And the sea its long moon-silver'd roll ; 

For self-poised they live, nor pine with noting 
All the fever of some differing soul. 

He became to a remarkably high degree the fulfilment 
of his own ideals. Personality has an elusive, subtle 
quality which is more difficult to describe than a sunset. 
His associates in the Philothean Society, one of the 
ministerial clubs in which he was long a member, gave 
this estimate of his character and work : 

In noting the death of Dr. Edward Judson, Philo desires to 
put on record its high estimate and affectionate appreciation 
of his character and career. An honorary member of this 
circle at the time of his death, October 23, he was an active 
member for many years, faithful and regular in attendance and 
contributing much to its pleasure and profit. He was a man of 
phenomenal amiability. Inheriting a name which would have 
won for him honor, respect, and distinction, he added to it by 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 145 

his own fine qualities of mind and heart. He had a temper 
serene, gentle, and modest; a spirit kind, courteous, and cordial; 
and a disposition genial, sweet, and lovable in the highest degree. 
He was affable and gracious in manner, generous in sentiment, 
sympathetic and catholic in his judgments. He drew all hearts 
to him, and commanded in a peculiar way the admiration and 
love of all who came in contact with his winsome and attractive 
nature. He had an intellect keen and brilliant, a mind well 
trained and richly stored, full of quaint but apposite allusion, 
poetic thought, and shrewd insight. His style of speech and 
writing was simple but extremely felicitous, abounding in apt 
quotation and picturesque description, happy characterization, de- 
lightful surprises, and striking phrases. He was full of humor, 
which played over the surface of his thought like heat-lightning 
in summer, but like that heat-lightning it never harmed the 
object illumined by its flash. He was a man of deep religious 
faith, holding tenaciously to the few fundamental truths of 
Christianity, which he gripped all the more strongly because they 
were few. The word saintly in its best sense was appropriate 
for his character. Coming to this city in 1881, he founded and 
built up a strong and influential church in the lower part of 
New York, in which the evangelistic and philanthropic agencies 
went hand in hand. He may justly be called the father of the 
institutional church. In the face of many obstacles he succeeded 
in establishing an organization of Christian enterprise along many 
diversified lines, which was in many respects unique, and which 
has been the model and inspiration of many institutions of a 
similar character throughout our country. Take him for all 
in all, Edward Judson was a remarkable man, and we shall 
not soon look upon his like again. 

The Sigmi Chi, another organization of prominent clergy- 
men of several communions, whose meeting was honored 
by his last public appearance, thus expressed his genius 
for fellowship : 

We bear our grateful tribute also to his genius for friend- 
ship, of which every member of the Sigma Chi had so rich a 
share. However heavy his own burdens, he was ever ready 
to bear the burdens of others. He was such a true comrade and 
loving counselor. His kindness and courtesy, his tact and 
gentle humor, his grace from God and faith in his fellow men, 



I46 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

not only sustained him under trials and amid difficulties that 
would have overborne others, but made him true yokefellow 
with all whose loads but for him had chafed them and whose 
trials liad discouraged them. 

In his address at the Centennial in Boston Edward Jud- 
son, in acknowledgment of his debt to his father's life 
and influence, said: 

The sainted dead sway our lives more profoundly than when 
they are with us. In the hours of perplexity we keep asking 
what they would do were they in our place. I have often 
thought that my father's influence upon my life has been greater 
than it would have been had he been spared to me through these 
years. 

The outstanding characteristics of the father were re- 
produced in the son; the same attention to health, food, 
and dress; the same social nature, expressed in the son, 
but restrained in the father; the same fondness for lin- 
guistic and literary pursuits ; the same aptitude for teach- 
ing; the same loyalty to conviction and unreserved com- 
mitment to a task; the same buoyant spirit, unconquer- 
ably youthful to the end; the same pertinacity of purpose 
and dogged determination; and the same sustaining faith 
in the heavenly Father. 

His mother's influence upon his character was hardly 
less marked. Those who knew intimately both Edward 
Judson and George Dana Boardman say that there was 
a stronger resemblance between the half-brothers than 
between Edward Judson and his own brothers. His 
appearance, his manner, his artistic sense, his gift for 
organization, as indeed his scholarly tastes, were in- 
herited quite as much from his mother as from his father. 

This closing chapter does not give opportunity for a 
restatement of his significant service. Through the old 
Berean Church — perhaps truly called the first institutional 
church ; through its successor, the Judson Memorial — the 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 147 

creation of his own indomitable will; through his writ- 
ing; and by his conspicuous example Edward Judson, 
perhaps more than any other man, helped to check the 
rout of the Christian church from America's greatest 
storm-centers, the down-town city fields. He led the 
church from a disgraceful defensive into an aggressive 
offensive. The inspiration of his example has gone out 
from lower New York to every city and town where 
similar conditions are confronted ; where, because of the 
flux of the population, the inflow of foreigners, the out- 
flow of the older American stock, the congestion of busi- 
ness and multiplication of pleasure resorts, the church 
has found itself bereft of support and outside of the 
sympathies of the people who jostle past its doors. He 
struck telling blows where blows had been hectic. 

The impact of these blows was widely felt. President 
Faunce, of Brown University, in a letter to Doctor Jud- 
son, once said : 

The work you have accomplished is in no way to be measured 
by the work within the walls of your church. You have set 
an ideal for hundreds of young ministers; you have helped 
them to rise above the tendency to seek charming suburban 
pastorates ; and have made them ambitious to stand on the firing- 
line. The influence of your work in New York has been felt 
in every city and town in the country. 

The Rev. William M. Lawrence once wrote him: 

I want to put here on paper what I have said to you fre- 
quently and to your family. I regard the work you have done 
as the greatest that has been done in our country for our de- 
nomination by any man. Absolutely unselfish in its initiation, 
characterized by self-denial, wisdom, wonderful patience, mingled 
with gentleness and courtesy and consideration, j^ou deserve to 
succeed, and if you had failed, the disappointment would have 
been yours, but the disgrace would have been the denomination's. 

He was one of the first men of outstanding ability to 
attract the attention of the church to the neglected 



I4& EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

down-town city communities. By the gift of himself as 
by the quality of his service, he dignified the task of city 
missions. He prepared the way for the Christian church, 
especially for churches located in communities where 
there has been no preparation for the gospel through quiet 
personal influence of Christian friends and neighbors, to 
use every opportunity for sympathetic personal contact 
in the profound faith that there is a contagion of god- 
liness. He taught the church to recognize that holy 
living begets holy living, that there is an incarnation to- 
day, and that only through it can God in Christ be made 
intelligible or the lives of men redeemed. By his example 
and by his teaching he led the church to multiply its 
points of contact, through social, educational, and be- 
nevolent ministry, to bring Christian men and women 
into daily touch with needy lives. In all this he saw that 
the reliance of the church is not upon method, but upon 
the power of God working through Christian men and 
women; that to the degree that an individual worker is 
the incarnation of his Master will he succeed and the 
church in which he works be a power. In this manner 
may a church, and may a Christian worker, become an 
interpreter of God. 

Though a scholar, and with the scholarly determining 
the main current of his life ; though a teacher, and with 
the persistence of the teacher governing all that he did; 
though a preacher of rare ability and rinding his deepest 
joy in his pulpit, he made his greatest contribution as a 
prophet of the social mission of the church and as 
an interpreter of God to the downtrodden and neglected 
in the congested quarters of America's greatest city, 
where for thirty-three years he bore the " burden and the 
heat of the long day," nor wished " it were done." It 
was there that he lived the most significant years of his 
life. 



INTERPRETER OF GOD 149 

At wedding- feasts in humble homes he became the in- 
carnation of joy; at the cradle of a household's new hope 
he incarnated faith in a life abundant; in the first taste 
of sorrow he incarnated the divine compassion; in a 
young man's struggle for life preparation against bitter 
odds he incarnated resolution and fixity of purpose; in 
the pinch of poverty he brought succor to weakened 
bodies and courage to impoverished souls ; in sickness that 
had become embittered by want and terrified by the help- 
lessness of dependent loved ones he became the embodi- 
ment of human sympathy and divine solicitude; and in 
the hour of death his hand became the compassionate, 
guiding hand of the Master; for he was an interpreter 
of God. 

It was his opportunity to live where " voice and vision 
came no more " ; where thousands had known no life in 
which the spirit of Christ was incarnate; where the 
church had become a memory or a mockery; where men 
endured the dull pain of sorrow nor dreamed that there 
could be a cure ; where some souls were sullen and others 
sodden. In such a community, this man of regal rights, 
the culmination of generations of culture, the finished 
product of the schools, the incarnation of sympathetic un- 
derstanding, the embodiment of gentleness and strength, 
came to live. For once the church, despite her reluctance, 
gave her best to the neediest. 

When Edward Judson gave up his attractive North 
Orange Church and became pastor of a struggling down- 
town mission interest, men said, Why should this man 
of exceptional power give himself to such a work? Why 
this waste? When for thirty-three years he held to his 
task, though called to the presidency of colleges, sought 
by strong churches, and lured by professorships, men said, 
Why this waste? When the heavy burdens began to 
break his rugged physical nature, and he began to die a 



I50 EDWARD JUDSON, INTERPRETER OF GOD 

slow death — a death mercifully sudden in the end — men 
said, Why this waste? When that incarnate life became 
celestial, ^humble folks came to pay their tribute of ap- 
preciation and of love — the rich, the learned, the cul- 
tured, the influential, were there, because they too loved 
him — but in greater numbers the poor and the ignorant, 
those without standing or influence, Americans, Italians, 
Negroes ; a poor woman, whose husband had deserted her 
and her helpless children; a woman who had had a life- 
long struggle with poverty, yet had kept herself pure and 
her soul sweet, and whose children and neighbors called 
her blessed; an illiterate truck-driver who, in the midst 
of his dull routine, had found life joyous; an Italian, in 
whose heart hate that had prompted to murder had given 
place to light, life, and love; a great company of those 
who had found in him their only hiding-place from the 
wind, their only covert from the tempest, their only 
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. When all these 
met in that churchly structure, an expression of the art 
of masters and of the soul of a social prophet, a landmark 
that those hands, now still, had reared, no one asked, 
Why this waste? To the people he was an interpreter 
of God. 

It shall be 
A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me, 
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like this hand 
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee ! 

See the Christ stand ! —Browning. 



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